Softwarehttp://www.maximumpc.com/taxonomy/term/68/
enHow to Use Adobe Photoshophttp://www.maximumpc.com/crash_course_learn_basics_adobe_photoshop_2015
<!--paging_filter--><p><span style="font-weight: bold;">Not sure where to start in Photoshop? Here's a crash course on the basics</span></p>
<p>Photoshop is a powerful application that can be used for a variety of purposes, from editing photos or other images to graphic design and 3D art to light videography work. But Photoshop's power and versatility can also make it incredibly intimidating. The program’s main window is strewn with 20 different tools plus a ton of filter effects and image layers to top it all off. While Photoshop may be as understandable as Sanskrit to a novice, we’re going to show you how to get started with the basics.</p>
<p><strong>Getting Started</strong></p>
<p><strong><img src="/files/u170397/interface.jpg" width="620" height="341" /><br /></strong></p>
<p>There’s a lot going on when you first launch Photoshop, but it’s not as incomprehensible as you think. On the left side, you’ll find the program's tools. You'll use these to manipulate your work, such as resizing and flipping images, cloning pixels, and drawing shapes. The right side, meanwhile, holds a quick menu to access the image adjustments; directly below that is your layer palette.</p>
<h3><strong>Working in layers</strong></h3>
<p><img src="/files/u170397/layers.jpg" width="135" height="351" style="float: left; margin: 10px;" />One of the things that makes Photoshop such a powerful image editor is the ability to stack layers on top of each other. For example, you might want to insert a new graphic into one layer, while another darkens a small portion of the image, and yet another adds more color saturation. Additonally, you can set each layer’s opacity and blend them altogether with effects. But more importantly, working in layers means you can isolate any changes you make to pixels in a that particular layer without affecting the whole image. So, every image you edit could easily have 10 or more layers. Professional editors will often create an image with 25 or more layers.</p>
<p>The layers palette is located on the bottom-right of your screen; hit Control + J to create a new one. Think of your layers as a stack of paper. Make sure to organize each one accordingly, to avoid hidden elements. There are also plenty of ways to blend layers together, but we’ll come back to that later.</p>
<h3><strong>All the filters</strong></h3>
<p><strong><img src="/files/u170397/filters.jpg" width="620" height="349" /><br /></strong></p>
<p>Filters are the second, if not the most, instrumental part of Photoshop. Unlike those color-shading Instagram filters, these will let you do some truly cool things with your images such as distorting the whole frame, adding various blur effects, and turning the image into a pixelated jumble—on purpose!</p>
<p>There’s a lot to dig into here, so take yoru time and play around for awhile in the filters menu.</p>
<p>On the next page, we're going over pratically every tool in Photoshop</p>
<hr />
<h3><strong>Tools the Trade </strong></h3>
<p><img src="/files/u170397/tools.jpg" width="100" height="546" style="margin: 10px; float: right;" />See that long tray on the left? (Pictured here to the right) That’s your tool set. It might look overwhelming, but it’s actually well organized into different sections. The top section has tools to select and move around parts of the images. One step down is holds brushes to add or remove elements of the image. Below that are tools to add text, shapes, and lines. Bringing up the bottom are navigation instruments and color swatches.</p>
<p>We’re not going over every little tool but here are most them. Each is important in its own right.</p>
<h3><strong>Transformative tools</strong></h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>Move Tool (V):</strong> This essentially allows you to move around objects with a simple click-and-drag. To move something, it has to be in an unlocked layer that’s also not the background layer.</li>
<li><strong>Transform (T):</strong> Though this isn’t featured as part of Photoshop’s main menu, it’s an indispensable tool that lets you change the size of your image and rotate it.</li>
</ul>
<h3><strong>Selection Tools</strong></h3>
<p>Selection tools are the key to creating a great image. But before we start delineating the various tools, there are a couple of keyboard commands you should know.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Shift + Left Click:</strong> Add to your current selection.</li>
<li><strong>Alt + Left Click:</strong> Conversely, this shortcut will subtract from your current selection. </li>
<li><strong>Control + D:</strong> one of the most important key combinations you should use to deselect Control + Shift + D: refocus on your last selection.</li>
<li><strong>Shift + Control + I:</strong> Inverse selection. A neat trick is to isolate an object from its flat background by selecting every pixel around it and then hitting Control + I, so you have a perfect outline around your subject.</li>
<li><strong>Control + D:</strong> Deselect everything.</li>
</ul>
<p>Now, with further ado, all of the selection tools.</p>
<p><img src="/files/u170397/selection.jpg" width="350" height="421" style="float: left; margin: 10px 20px;" /></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Marquee tool (M):</strong> This tool lets you highlight rectangular and circular parts of your canvas. Hitting the shift key while you’re moving the cursor will also cause this selection tool to morph into a perfectly square or round shape.</li>
<li><strong>Lasso (L):</strong> The Lasso tool is a free-form selection tool that lets you draw lines over the image. When using the regular lasso option, you can create curved lines as long as you’re holding down the mouse button. Once you let go, it completes the shape with a straight line that connects with your starting point. Alternatively, there’s also the Polygonal Tasso Tool, which sketches out only straight lines. Lastly, the Magnetic Lasso will automatically latch on to edges.</li>
<li><strong>Magic Wand (W):</strong> One of the easiest selection tools to use because it will select the area you click on as well as any similar pixels around that spot. It can be further fine-tuned by decreasing the tolerance, or if you want to select more of the area, increasing the tolerance.</li>
<li><strong>Crop Tool (C):</strong> As the name suggests, this will crop your images. You can either click and drag the exact framing you want or click on the image to create a box over it, which you further adjust by shrinking the sides. Holding down shift while using either method will also preserve the image’s original aspect ratio.</li>
<li><strong>Eye Dropper (I):</strong> Want to re-create the same color from part of the image? You can! Move the tip of this tool to the exact pixel you want to copy.</li>
</ul>
<h3><strong>Fixer-uppers </strong></h3>
<p><strong><img src="/files/u170397/brush.jpg" width="620" height="338" /><br /></strong></p>
<p>The next set of tools is a more focused on editing pixels and adding spot-on images. Like the Selection tools, there are a few nuances to these tools that it really helps to know. For example, a brush can have a soft head, which means its effect will gradually fade away on the edges rather than coming to a hard stop. Also, keep in mind you can change the overall size of your brush as well as its shape.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Healing Brush (J):</strong> This brush lets you fix small imperfections in your images such as acne or wrinkles, spots of dust, and other small fixes.<img src="/files/u170397/clone_tool.jpg" width="620" height="414" /></li>
<li><strong>Clone Stamp Tool (S):</strong> Similar to the healing brush, this tool effectively clones an area. This could be useful for removing a cloud in an otherwise clear blue sky. To use the tool, you'll first have to press the Alt key and click on the area of pixels you want to replicate. After that you can just dab the clone tool on the part of the image you want to fix.</li>
<li><strong>History Brush (Y):</strong> Made a mistake? No sweat, this brush lets you paint back in time. For example, if you made the entire picture darker, you could use this brush to selectively peel back your last edit in certain spots. </li>
<li><strong>Blur/Sharpen/Smudge:</strong> This is one of Photoshop’s three-part editing tools. Blur rubs out details, making them fuzzier, and soften textures. Conversely, the sharpening tool accentuates the details, making them crisper. Smudge is a interesting tool because it melds pixels together, which makes it almost completey useless for real-life photos. However, the smudge tool might be more applicable for blending colors in art, or perhaps creating wisps of smoke.</li>
<li><strong>Gradient Tool (G):</strong> Use the Gradient Tool to create (you guessed it) gradients of color. Once the tool is selected, click and drag the resulting line in the direction you want the color shift to go in. But if you want to mix in more than one color, use the drop-down menu bar toward the top of the screen. This lets you set up complex gradients that span multiple colors; you can also set the gradient pattern.<img src="http://www.maximumpc.com/files/u170397/dodge_and_burn.jpg" width="620" height="414" /></li>
<li><strong>Burn/Dodge/Sponge Tools (O):</strong> Another trifecta of editing tools. Burn and dodge will affect the lighting in your image, adding more shadows or more light, respectively. The sponge tool, on the other hand, can be used to change the saturation in your image, making colors richer or grayer.</li>
<li><strong>Eraser:</strong> Last but not least, the eraser lets you clean up any nasty edges or mistakes in your images. If you’re working with layers, a sure-fire tip is to use this tool with a soft brush to smooth out the edges between each element of the image.</li>
</ul>
<h3><strong>Image elements</strong></h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>Pen Tool (P):</strong> Usually more useful for artists sketching up vector graphics and other art, the pen allows the users to draw freeform and straight lines.</li>
<li><strong>Text Tool (T):</strong> Who says Photoshop is only about images? Add some words to the picture.</li>
<li><strong>Shapes tool (U):</strong> Add in an assortment of shapes, including rectangles with rounded or sharp sides, circles of all proportions, polygons, lines again, and other custom shapes.</li>
</ul>
<h3><strong>Navigation tools</strong></h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>Hand Tool (H):</strong> Giving you a hand getting around the frame, just click and drag to explore the canvas if you’re viewing the image at a high magnification.</li>
<li><strong>Zoom Tool (Z):</strong> Speaking of magnification, this is an indispensable part of working in Photoshop. A regular click will zoom into the image, whereas holding Alt while hitting the mouse button will zoom out. With either option you can also hold down the mouse button for a smoother pull and push zoom.</li>
</ul>
<h3><strong>Shades of the rainbow</strong></h3>
<p><strong><img src="/files/u170397/color_menu.jpg" width="620" height="475" /><br /></strong></p>
<p>Picking colors adds a whole other subset of options. Once you hit your color swatches on the lower-left of a screen, a new popup window will show an entire color gamut for you to choose from. In the image above, you see a large box that displays red in a wide array of intensities, from washed-out white in the upper-left, plain old black in the bottom-left, and the brightest version in the upper-right.</p>
<p>Next to this, there’s also a bar showing all the different hues to chose from. Of course, you can also manually dial in exactly what color you want to work with.</p>
<h3><strong>History</strong></h3>
<p>The History palette is a magical time machine located in the upper-right of the Photoshop interface. Photoshop records every little move you make; navigating to this small menu allows you to you jump back in time and revert to any changes you made in the past.</p>
<p>Read on to see a few things you can do with Photoshop.</p>
<hr />
<p>Now that we’ve gotten though the tools, we’re going to put everything we’ve learned to good use and start photoshopping some images.</p>
<h3>A basic Photoshop</h3>
<p><img src="/files/u170397/photoshopped.jpg" width="620" height="411" /></p>
<p>One of the most basic things you can do with Photoshop is joining together two images. Let's start with creating a selection around the object we want to shop into our main image.</p>
<ol>
<li>Instead of using any old Marquee Tool, we’re going to use the Pen Tool (P), which we'll use to draw a path around the object.<img src="http://www.maximumpc.com/files/u170397/pen_select.jpg" width="620" height="470" /></li>
<li>After the shape is complete, press the A key to bring up the Direct Selection Tool. Click on the image and select Make Selection in the contextual menu. </li>
<li>This will create the selection; now, hit the copy shortcut (Control + C).</li>
<li>Next up, lets bring up our main image, then paste (Control + V) the object into it.<img src="/files/u170397/photoshop.jpg" width="620" height="341" /></li>
<li>Because it’s been added in as a new layer, we can easily move it around.</li>
<li>Lastly, we’re going to clean up any harsh edges using a soft-brushed eraser.</li>
</ol>
<h3>Create a toy box image</h3>
<p><img src="/files/u170397/final_tilt_shift.jpg" width="620" height="414" /></p>
<p>One of the other cool things you can do simply in Photoshop is simulate the toy box effect typically created with a very expensive tilt-shift lens. This little trick lets you turn an image of the real world into a miniature toy set. Images shot from a tall building or some other elevation down onto a subject area work best. Once you've got your image, here's how to do it in a few simple steps.</p>
<ol>
<li>After you’ve opened your image, go to Filter &gt; Blur Gallery &gt; Tilt-Shift</li>
<li>This brings up a new overlay of three bars, as well as a round center point on your image. </li>
<li>This center point should be position over the subject you want to keep in focus. You can also tweak the miniature distortion and blur levels with the settings on the side. To orient the effect, you can rotate the bars or adjust the spacing between them. Once you’ve picked a pleasing effect, go ahead and click OK.</li>
</ol>
<p><img src="http://www.maximumpc.com/files/u170397/tiltshift_middle.jpg" width="620" height="341" /></p>
<p>These next few steps are for an extra bit of gloss, but they’ll make your images pop.</p>
<ol>
<li>For a bit of vignetting fakery, you could add a new fill layer (found under the Layer menu). Make sure to pick a solid color, preferably black.</li>
<li>This will in turn cover your image with a completely opaque layer of black paint, but don’t fret. Simply hover over to the layer’s opacity and bring it down.</li>
<li>Next, use the eraser tool with a large soft brush and erase any spots you want to be bright in the final image.
<p><img src="http://www.maximumpc.com/files/u170397/saturation.jpg" width="620" height="341" /></p>
</li>
<li>Lastly, go to the adjustments menu and shake up some of the brightness and saturation to really make the image pop.</li>
<li>Voilà! You have a great-looking (but fake) miniature photo</li>
</ol>
<h3>But wait there's more</h3>
<p>We’ve barely scratched the surface of all the power behind Photoshop. There's much more that you can do with the program, such as generating vector art and adding selective color to your photos, for a few examples. But this was only a crash course to give you a starting point for all you great projects. Now, get photoshopping!</p>
http://www.maximumpc.com/crash_course_learn_basics_adobe_photoshop_2015#commentsAdobecrash coursehow to useimage editingMedia Applicationsphotoshoppost processingSoftwareSoftwareFeaturesWed, 14 Jan 2015 22:49:29 +0000Kevin Lee28811 at http://www.maximumpc.comDiablo 3: Reaper of Souls Reviewhttp://www.maximumpc.com/diablo_3_reaper_souls_review
<!--paging_filter--><h3>A much-needed kick in the pants revamps the franchise</h3>
<p>When we last left our hero Diablo, the Lord of Terror wasn’t all that scary anymore. In fact, he’s probably been a bit lonely. The joy of killing Diablo 3’s big boss alongside Blizzard’s army of players has long since faded for those who haven’t already abandoned the game at some point since its May 2012 release.</p>
<p>In its place, we’ve had endless runs: Alkaizer. Crypt of the Ancients. Keywardens. Leveling through the game’s Paragon system, introduced as part of Diablo 3’s 1.0.4 patch in August 2012, sweetened the title’s previously lamentable endgame by giving players an expanded goal to work toward. And work they did. Killing monsters rewarded players with experience to fill up to 100 of these “bonus levels,” which successively increased their core stats (more killing power) and chances to find gear and gold—allowing them to tackle higher difficulty levels for… more experience. And more gear and gold.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/mpc100.rev_reaper_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/mpc100.rev_reaper_small.jpg" alt="Spoiler: The bosses in Reaper of Souls aren’t pushovers. Average players can expect to spend a bit of time with them." title="Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls" width="620" height="349" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Spoiler: The bosses in Reaper of Souls aren’t pushovers. Average players can expect to spend a bit of time with them.</strong></p>
<p>You can never really win a game like Diablo. Only, you sort-of could if you were quite the little digital economist within Diablo 3’s most controversial feature: The dreaded auction house. Your countless runs through the same enemy farming routes didn’t just boost your character, it gave you precious items that could net you a fortune in digital gold—or actual, real-life cash, for those desperate enough for a boost to their characters.</p>
<p>Diablo 3’s long-awaited expansion, Reaper of Souls, ushers in a new era for the title. It’s much less controversial, and—dare we say it—a lot more fun, too. While the game’s formula will never truly be perfect, nor the script especially compelling, there’s plenty to do in Reaper of Souls that should excite even the most stalwart of Diablo 3 giver-uppers.</p>
<p>What’s changed? Everything. Everything lame, that is.</p>
<p>First up, the aforementioned auction house is no more. For that, we could not be more grateful. Little fun could be found in watching the price of seemingly mundane items skyrocket as a result of Diablo 3’s inflation-filled failure of an economic system. As casual players, we hated knowing that achieving enough in-game gold to outfit a character even semi-properly was a pipe dream unless one instituted an 80-hour Diablo 3 work week.</p>
<p>That, coupled with the feeling that Diablo 3 baddies exploded with a ton of often-useless rewards for our character, made our progression feel more tedious than terrific. Happily, those times are long gone. The new Loot 2.0 system, unveiled as a patch alongside Reaper of Souls’ release, ditches fluff for usability. Items that drop are fewer, but better, featuring stats that are far more in tune with what your character class could conceivably use. You’ll be getting a lot more of the game’s rarer legendary items, thanks to tweaked drop rates and reward rules. You can even spend resources to re-roll one stats on items that are almost perfect, via Diablo 3’s newest NPC resource, the Mystic.</p>
<p>Once you’ve beaten Reaper of Souls’ main quest—humans can be good or evil, and angels-turned-death-avatars don’t like potentially evil things—the game unlocks “Adventure Mode.” This game-within-a-game is a much-needed addition to the Diablo formula, as it entices players to revisit various parts of the game by giving them all sorts of bounties to complete.</p>
<p>Kill an act boss; clear a map of bad guys; finish a mini-quest; unlock a chest. Completing five of the various bounties in a given act grants a character a pat on the back from everyone’s favorite (non-jerk) archangel, and a seraphim showcase showdown in the form of a cache of free items and gold, a huge chunk of experience, blood shards, and a rift stone.</p>
<p>Blood shards are part of Blizzard’s similarly ingenious method of bringing back Diablo’s tried-and-true “gambling” system, wherein one spends funds to receive a magical item whose properties are unknown prior to purchase. Since the auction house is no more, and spending one’s summer killing demons for that one, sought-after item can feel like an exercise in futility, the “blood shards” currency allows players to hone in on specific upgrades they’re looking for by item type. If “DemonKilla89” needs a new pair of pants, you can spend this secondary currency to purchase random magical pants until, with luck, you’ve found a winner.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/mpc100.rev_reaper_small_4.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/mpc100.rev_reaper_small_3.jpg" alt="“Cursed Chests” found within the game can give you a bit of a challenge for some extra loot." title="Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls" width="620" height="349" /></a></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>“Cursed Chests” found within the game can give you a bit of a challenge for some extra loot.</strong></p>
<p>As for rift stones, spending these rarer trinkets unlocks “Nephalem Rifts” within the game’s adventure mode. You get random dungeons to fight in that are filled with random baddies—and you’ll kill a great many of these baddies before a more unique Rift boss appears. Kill it, and get a big reward. It’s that easy. And to further incentivize players to try this system, the rifts themselves come with an even greater chance for finding (much-beloved) legendary items.</p>
<p>We appreciate Blizzard’s efforts to counteract Diablo 3’s old formula: Hit up waypoints in the main game, plow through an enemy-rich area, quit out, start a new game, hit up the waypoint, et cetera. It got tedious in its motions; worse, it got tedious in its aesthetic. While it could be said that a similar amount of tedium will eventually hit bounties and rifts, at least the game is forcing players to do different things in different places. It’s a great change of pace to hit up areas (and bosses) in the Diablo 3 universe that would likely be left untraveled were gamers forced to find their own “best experience/loot runs.”</p>
<p>The game’s other major new addition, the Crusader class, is plenty fun, but we were a bit put off by the ease at which one can use completely legitimate exploits to power this, or any character, to maximum level within a few hours’ time. While we agree that having to slog through the five-act campaign for each character you want to try out seems a bit much, there has to be a better solution than allowing level-70 buddies to speed-run newbies to the top. Perhaps offering unique elements as part of the legitimate leveling process could be a good way to let players customize their toons and prevent this mindless boosting.</p>
<p>This speaks to our core issue with the Diablo 3 world: It still lacks a sense of personalization. That’s not to say that Blizzard hasn’t accomplished much by transforming a benign offering into a beauté, but it’s time for the company to make a player’s efforts feel as if they matter beyond just the gear they carry or the achievements they unlock. Flood gamers with content, ideas, customizables, and maybe even (the long-awaited) PvP, and Diablo 3 will become as bright a (fallen) star in Blizzard’s universe as its other addictive franchises.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/mpc100.rev_reaper_small_6.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/mpc100.rev_reaper_small_5.jpg" alt="Giant demon? Attacking my city? We think we’d probably just move at that point. You’re on your own, Nephalem." title="Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls" width="620" height="349" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Giant demon? Attacking my city? We think we’d probably just move at that point. You’re on your own, Nephalem.</strong></p>
<p>Reaper of Souls brings Diablo 3 so far forward, it would be the biggest shame for Blizzard to negate this excellent momentum by not following up with even more specialized features to supplement the title’s addictive elements. Give us more of a reason to roll two softcore Wizard characters at once, and we’ll happily vanquish all the evil you send our way.</p>
<p><strong>$40,</strong> <a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/">http://us.battle.net/d3/en</a>, <strong>ESRB: M</strong></p>
http://www.maximumpc.com/diablo_3_reaper_souls_review#commentsDiablo 3: Reaper of SoulsJuly issues 2014maximum pcReviewSoftwareSoftwareGamesReviewsFri, 17 Oct 2014 08:53:24 +0000David Murphy28736 at http://www.maximumpc.comRestore Your Computer to its Glory Dayshttp://www.maximumpc.com/restore_computer_2014
<!--paging_filter--><h3>Give your PC a clean start</h3>
<p>If you’re reading this, it’s highly likely that your PC is a fine-tuned piece of 64-bit technology, customized to the hilt and purring like a kitten with a belly full of formula. Yup, she’s a beaut, and attacks your daily tasks like a Belgian Police Dog going after a fleeing perp. All is well in the world, until one day when you sit down, fire it up, and realize something is different. That extra bit of snap when programs open is missing, and encoding video seems to take longer than it used to. Even downloading files seems to require more patience than you’re accustomed to exhibiting. It’s at this very moment that you silently say to yourself, “What the FRACK???”</p>
<p>First things first—calm down, power user. Before you smash your rig with a hammer, pound on the keyboard, and decide to just nuke it from orbit, realize it’s just a temporary slowdown and it happens to everyone, even Maximum PC editors. Over time, PCs get slower; it’s just the nature of the beast. Don’t fret, we’re here to help by showing you how to give your PC a clean start. We'll show you how to restore you computer to its glory days, if you will. We’ll walk you step-by-step through the cleaning process, showing you what you need to get ’er done, and if you find you can’t resolve the problem, how to properly nuke it from orbit. We’ll also detail—pun intended—physically cleaning your rig. Once you’re finished, your PC will be noticeably perkier and everything will be right as rain. Now, drop the hammer, and let’s get started.</p>
<h3>Back it up and kick the tires</h3>
<p><strong>The only person to blame for not having a backup is you</strong></p>
<p>There’s only two kinds of storage devices in this world: those that have already died and those that are going to die. If you’ve already identified that your PC is acting wonky, it’s time to back that mother up. It may seem counterintuitive that you would run a backup before you do a PC cleanup, but we highly recommend it: If you break something or something finally gives up the ghost, you’ll kiss your USB ports that you made a backup before it all went sideways. There are numerous aftermarket tools, but Microsoft has been kind enough to give you a fairly powerful backup and imaging tool in the OS itself. If you’re using Windows 7, just search for Backup, or dig into the Control Panel and look under System and Security. If you’re using Windows 8.x, the backup system is the same, although it’s hidden. To find it, go to the Control Panel and search for Windows 7 File Recovery.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/gordon_backup_small_1.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/gordon_backup_small_0.jpg" alt="The Windows backup and restore program works well enough, and should be run regularly." width="620" height="547" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>The Windows backup and restore program works well enough, and should be run regularly.</strong></p>
<p>If you have multiple drives, you can choose how you want the backup to run, and manually select the other drives in the system for the backup set. You should set an automatic backup as well, and create a system restore disc. Ensure that you created a system image, also, should you need to restore the backup to a completely new hard drive.</p>
<p>With your backup complete, it’s time to do a basic visual inspection of the internals of the PC for obvious problems, such as fans clogged with so much cat hair and dust that they’re causing the CPU or GPU to overheat and throttle, or data or power cables that have wiggled loose. Typically, loose or unplugged cables result in immediate show-stopping errors and crashes rather than a system slowdown. You’re more likely to find your fans clogged with dust running at low RPMs or fans that have died.</p>
<h3>Mash Malware</h3>
<p><strong>Don’t always blame malware, except when it’s to blame</strong></p>
<p>If there’s a bogeyman of mysterious system slowdowns, it’s malware. In fact, if we had a nickel for every time a relative told us a “virus” was the cause of their slowdown, we’d have 0.08-34 of a Bitcoin. With that said, before you get too hip-deep in trying to speedupify a PC, a sweep for malware should be run. We’d also do a cursory examination of the OS for extraneous toolbars or tray items that have been installed. These aren’t truly malware, but still worthy of eradication.</p>
<p>We’d also recommend a full system scan by the system’s real-time AV software (after updating the virus definitions). A secondary sweep using various on-demand tools is also on the to-do list. This would include browser-based file scanners available from all of the popular AV vendors, as well local tools such as Malwarebytes (www.malwarebytes.org) or SuperAntiSpyware (<a href="http://www.superantispyware.com/">www.superantispyware.com</a>). Running specific rootkit removal tools available from companies such as Malwarebytes and Sophos, among others, can’t hurt. Rootkits are a class of malware designed to thwart normal detection means. Before you get crazy about removing any detections, you should research it to make sure it isn’t just a false positive. And be advised that many types of malware can’t be removed with a single-click tool. You’ll typically have to dig deep in a multi-page guide to remove many of today’s specialty infections. Obviously, Binging will lead you to most guides, but a great place to start is Bleepingcomputer.com. The site has loads of removal guides and links to useful tools. But again, a word of warning: don’t just start ripping things out of the OS without knowing what you’re removing.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/gordon_rootkit_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/gordon_rootkit_small.jpg" alt="A thorough check for malware is recommended before any serious system cleanup." title="Mash Malware" width="620" height="516" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>A thorough check for malware is recommended before any serious system cleanup.</strong></p>
<h3>
<hr />Cruft clearing</h3>
<p><strong>Declutter the system files</strong></p>
<p>Any PC that you use daily will build up hundreds of gigabytes of file clutter over the months and years that you use it. As most people are rolling large mechanical drives, the clutter has an impact on performance and your ability to pack away even more cute kitten videos downloaded from the Internet.</p>
<p>For this step, we’ll start with the low-hanging fruit. Simply open My Computer, right-click your primary drive, and select properties. Click Disk Cleanup and check off the things that are clutter (just about everything is in this panel) and click OK. We did this on a work box and shaved off 5GB in Windows Update files that had been sitting around. While 5GB isn’t much in the day of 4TB drives, many people still run 1TB and smaller drives with every nook, cranny, and sector filled (you know who you are.)</p>
<p>The next easy cruft targets are the system restore points automatically created by Windows. Windows typically creates these snapshots of the OS when you install a new driver, OS update, or application. Windows sets a default for these based on the size of the drive it’s installed on, but they typically occupy gigabytes on the drive. To free up space, you can delete all but the latest restore points by clicking the More Options panel from Disk Cleanup, and selecting Clean Up under System Restore and Shadow Copies.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/cruft1_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/cruft1_small.jpg" alt="The built-in disk cleanup does a decent first pass at dumping unneeded system clutter." title="Cruft clearing" width="500" height="612" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>The built-in disk cleanup does a decent first pass at dumping unneeded system clutter.</strong></p>
<p>Before you do this, though, think about how the recent stability&nbsp; of your system. If it’s been reliable but slow for the last few months, wiping the previous restore points should be fine. But if the system is being wonky, you may just need to rely on those restore points to get the box back to a point where it’s stable, so we’d recommend keeping the old restore points until you’re sure the box is working. You should also be aware that Windows 7 and Windows Vista used System Protection and Restore Points to occasionally make backup copies of your personal data files through the Volume Shadow Copies service. These older versions may be purged when you do this, but it won’t touch your most recent versions.</p>
<p>Yeah, we know, many power users will thumb their nose at System Restore and some will outright switch it off because malware can use it as a place to hide, but the feature can truly be a bacon-saver sometimes.</p>
<p>Another easy target to clean out is the default downloads folder. Other than documents, the vast majority of downloaded files can usually be dumped overboard.</p>
<h3>Clean the Crap</h3>
<p><strong>CCleaner is an easy-to-use, one-stop declogger</strong></p>
<p>Originally named Crap Cleaner, this handy application has since been renamed to the more palatable CCleaner, but it still works amazingly well at clearing out the junk from the corners of your OS. Available for free from http://bit.ly/MPC_CCleaner, it’s an easy one-stop shop for freeing up space that you might normally miss with the built-in cleaner. As much as we like CCleaner, you shouldn’t expect miracles. We ran it on a three-year-old scungy build of Windows 7 after running the Window’s cleaning routine and CCleaner came up with 18.3GB to clean out—16GB had accumulated in the trash bin. One word of warning: By default, CCleaner will wipe out your browser cookies, which might throw you for a loop when you’re forced to sign into web sites that you may have forgotten the passwords for. It’s probably best to exclude browser history and also Windows Explorer Recent Documents from the CCleaner clean-out, too, because they don’t net you much space but make your system more livable.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/ccleaner_small_2.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/ccleaner_small_1.jpg" alt="CCleaner still does an admirable job of emptying out unneeded files." width="620" height="546" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>CCleaner still does an admirable job of emptying out unneeded files.</strong></p>
<h3>Stop Startups</h3>
<p><strong>Giddyap quicker</strong></p>
<p>Oddly, many people still define their computing experience by how long it takes to cold-boot their PC. First, we just have to ask, have you tried standby or even hibernate? You know, those handy modes that can have you at the desktop five or 10 seconds after touching the mouse button or keyboard? No? You still prefer to boot from cold, anyway?</p>
<p>If your OS install is a year or two old, you will have accumulated enough startup programs to significantly impact hard-drive boot times. The easiest way to remove these programs is click on the Start button, and type msconfig. Click on the Startup tab and scroll through the list, looking for things that don’t need to be started at launch. Uncheck them, click apply, then OK, and reboot.</p>
<p>One thing to remember, Windows 7 will optimize the boot times automatically. If you reboot, and wait five minutes and reboot four or five times, the boot times should actually get better automatically as Windows 7 decides what it can prioritize.</p>
<p>Windows 8.x (yes, haters, step back) actually improves upon boot times, as well. Anyone who has used the new OS can attest to its fast boot times. Win8 moves startup optimization to the Task Manager (ctrl-shift-esc). Click on the Startup tab, and Windows 8 will even tell you what’s slowing things down, and give you an estimate of how long it took to boot after the process was handed over to the OS.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/msconfig_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/msconfig_small.jpg" alt="You can manually deselect programs that start up from msconfig to speedify your boots." width="620" height="414" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>You can manually deselect programs that start up from msconfig to speedify your boots.</strong></p>
<p>Those of us who have moved on to the SSD-based western shores of Valinor live lives fairly well untroubled by slow startups. But those poor souls of middle earth still using mechanical-based drives are the ones who need to concern themselves with startup optimization.&nbsp;</p>
<h3>
<hr />Consider an upgrade</h3>
<p><strong>Hardware isn’t always the answer, but it usually is</strong></p>
<p>The vast majority of our tips to clean up a slow-running PC can be solved in software, but sometimes software isn’t the answer. How will you know the difference? One of the clearest indicators is age. Old PC components do not age like wine. If you’re at your buddy’s house to “take a look at his computer” and that computer is a Pentium 4 or Athlon XP, it’s a lost cause.</p>
<p>So, while most newbs you’re trying to help can still benefit from the cleaning tips in this story, the P4/Athlon XP machines aren’t going to sing no matter how much you tune them. Putting money into a hardware upgrade for these old dogs should be carefully weighed: new parts can be difficult to locate and everything in the box is suspect.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/p4.northwood_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/p4.northwood_small.jpg" alt="Unless you’re in the retro computing club, we’d recommend dumping that Pentium 4 box." title="P4" width="620" height="496" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Unless you’re in the retro computing club, we’d recommend dumping that Pentium 4 box.</strong></p>
<p>It’s not so bad for a Phenom II or Core 2 box. In fact, these machines can be quite workable if the user has realistic expectations. Dropping an SSD into a Phenom II or Core 2 rig would be a game-changer for these old platforms, even if the motherboard doesn’t support the full SATA 6Gb/s speeds. Sometimes, a little RAM will even help, if the box was already memory-starved to begin with. With a 64-bit OS, 8GB is standard and 4GB is borderline.</p>
<p>If gaming needs a boost, dropping in a newer GPU can certainly help. Even those rigs that are constrained by low-wattage PSUs now have a modern option with Nvidia’s new Maxwell series, which can run on even 300W PSUs.</p>
<p>If the machine is also running that now-abandoned OS, Windows XP, an OS upgrade to Windows 7 or even Windows 8 is advised.</p>
<p>Obviously, we don’t recommend $400 in upgrades on a $200 PC, but a $100 upgrade on a box that buys the person another 24 months of use can be a godsend for those on tight budgets. As we said, though, everything at or below the P4/Athlon XP line should be abandoned.</p>
<h3>Visualize your drive</h3>
<p><strong>Think of WinDirStat as Google Maps for your HDDs</strong></p>
<p>You’ve cleaned up the extraneous system files on your machine, but the real junk is the gigabytes of nothingness you’ve collected from repeatedly dumping that 32GB memory card onto the hard drive because you were afraid to delete something you might need later. Six months later, those same unkempt files are bogging down your system and freeloading on your dime. When space gets tight, we turn to WinDirStat (<a href="http://www.windirstat.info">www.windirstat.info</a>).</p>
<p>In the past, when drives were smaller and your file-hoarding was limited to a mere 500GB or so, you could rely on the good old-fashioned search-and-destroy technique: browsing through Windows Explorer for old photos, games, and files that you simply don’t use anymore. With 3TB and even 4TB drives packed with god knows what, that technique isn’t effective anymore. Instead, use Windows Directory Statistics, or WinDirStat, to help visualize and locate files on our drives that can be slated for termination. WinDirStat is an extremely lightweight (less than a megabyte) open-source program that scans your hard drive to provide you with three sets of information: directory list, tree map, and file extensions list. The tree map—easily the most attractive feature in the program—represents every file on your hard drive as a colored rectangle. Also handy is the extension list, which gives you total percentages calculated by file extensions.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/windirstat_small_2.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/windirstat_small_1.jpg" alt="We dig the simple and effective representation of our hard drives from WinDirStat." width="620" height="349" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>We dig the simple and effective representation of our hard drives from WinDirStat.</strong></p>
<p>The tree map is the handiest and helps you easily see where you have bloat on your drives—the bigger the file, the bigger the rectangle. Scrolling over files displays the file name and its location, and you can delete files from within the program by selecting a file and pressing the delete key.</p>
<h3>Dedupe it</h3>
<p><strong>Duplicate often </strong></p>
<p>Most people treat hard drives like the attic or garage. Rather than immediately culling extra files, you simply put it in storage to deal with at a later date (the road to hell, good intentions, etc). No matter that you already put those files in storage just last week—you’ll get around to dumping the duplicate files eventually. While there are many, many deduplication tools available, one good starting place is Auslogic’s free Duplicate File Finder app (<a href="http://www.auslogics.com/en/">www.auslogics.com</a>) It doesn’t have the bells or whistles of apps that analyze audio, photo, and video for duplicates, but it works fairly fast and is a good way to eliminate the obvious duplicate files. On one old Windows 7 box, Duplicate File Finder turned up a good 39GB of dupes that could be tossed. Simply fire up Duplicate File Finder, have it search your drive, and it will give you a list of duplicate files. Under Action, select All Duplicates In Each Group, and it will mark the duplicate files for dumping into a trash can, or moving into the Rescue Center, where you can recover the file if you realize later on you made a mistake.</p>
<p>The program works well enough, but we wouldn’t wipe out files willy-nilly without first making a separate backup and making sure that the irreplaceable files going away are actually duplicates. DFF will show you the file name, file size, and creation date, which gives most people enough confidence to delete, but the paranoia in us would want to visually confirm it, too. This same philosophy is probably what brought us to this space issue in the first place. After all, am I sure I really did copy all of the images from the memory card to the computer? Even the ones I took last weekend? I’ll just make another copy... I have plenty of space.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/duplicatefilefinder_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/duplicatefilefinder_small.jpg" alt="Duplicate File Finder can quickly, er, find your duplicate files." title="Duplicate File Finder " width="620" height="484" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Duplicate File Finder can quickly, er, find your duplicate files.</strong></p>
<h3>Optimize your storage</h3>
<p><strong>Storage is usually the prime suspect in system slowdowns</strong></p>
<p>Before we get started discussing problems with your storage system and how to optimize it, make sure you have done two things: First, that you’ve connected your SSD to a SATA 6Gb/s port on your motherboard (consult your manual), and second, that you’ve enabled AHCI on your SATA controller via the motherboard BIOS. If you’ve already installed Windows and your SATA controller is set to IDE instead of AHCI, hit Google to find the registry hack to fix it. And yes, running in IDE mode rather than AHCI on a modern SSD can indeed rob you of performance.</p>
<p>With that out of the way, the first thing to do when you sense your system is slowing down and you see your hard-drive activity LED churning constantly, is enlist the trusty three-finger salute. For the uninitiated, that means pressing ctrl-alt-delete to bring up the Task Manager in Windows. Select the Performance tab to see if anything is spiking or is nearing 100 percent utilization. From there, you can go to the Processes tab to see which process is taking up all those resources. In the screenshot below, we see a staff member’s work PC that suffered daily paralyzation at the hands of a virus scan and several associated processes. The resolution was to kill the processes, then make sure to schedule the virus scans during non-work hours.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/ssd_optimize_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/ssd_optimize_small.jpg" alt="Both Samsung and Intel offer free “tuning” software that helps keep your SSD running in tip-top shape. " width="620" height="467" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Both Samsung and Intel offer free “tuning” software that helps keep your SSD running in tip-top shape. </strong></p>
<p>If everything looks fine in the Task Manager but the system still feels slow, run a few benchmarks to see if the numbers are up to spec. For sequential read and write tests, we recommend Crystal-DiskMark for SSDs and HDTune for Hard drives. Admittedly, none of us use HDDs for our OS anymore—there’s no reason to with SSD prices falling faster than the value of Bitcoin.</p>
<p>If you run the benchmarks and find the performance is lacking on your SSD, you have a few options. Your first is to optimize the drive via the Trim command. What this does is send a command to the drive that tells it to run its garbage-collection routine, which means it will erase all the blocks that have been deleted, clearing the way for them to receive fresh writes. If the drive has not been trimmed in a while, data can become fragmented all over the drive, and since blocks of an SSD have to be erased before they are written to (as opposed to a hard drive, where they can just be overwritten at any time), a simple write command can require the controller to delete blocks, move data around, and then perform the write, which can seriously degrade performance.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/wtf_-_copy_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/wtf_-_copy_small.jpg" alt="If your system feels like it’s stuck in the mud, the Task Manager will reveal what’s causing the problem. " width="620" height="564" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>If your system feels like it’s stuck in the mud, the Task Manager will reveal what’s causing the problem. </strong></p>
<p>In general, if you’re running Windows 7 or newer, you should be fine. However, you can Trim a drive manually on Windows 8: right-click the drive in My Computer, and click Properties, Tools, and then Optimize. If you own a Samsung or Intel SSD, you can download the free Samsung Magician or SSD Toolbox software, respectively, which also let you Trim your drive.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<hr />
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>HDD “Optimization”</h3>
<p><strong>Fast hard drives aren’t</strong></p>
<p>If you are running a hard drive and want to optimize it, there’s not a whole lot you can do beyond keeping it defragmented. To make sure it’s “defragged,” right-click the drive, select Properties, Tools, and then Defragmentation. Ideally, you should do this after you’ve done your cleaning of unused junk from the machine. If it’s your boot device, some people like to disable hibernation before a defrag to get a little extra “boost” out of the defrag by eliminating the multi-gigabyte hiberfil.sys file. Frankly, we don’t think it matters much anymore. In our opinion, the concept of a “fast hard drive” is antiquated now, due to SSDs, as is the concept of “optimizing” them. Any gains you make toward keeping a hard drive optimized will be largely unnoticeable in the real world, beyond dumping the useless cruft and running a basic defrag, which the OS will do on its own.</p>
<h3>Let’s Get Physical</h3>
<p><strong>Knock, knock, house cleaning</strong></p>
<p>Unless you live in a HEPA-filtered cleanroom, a desktop PC will eventually need a physical cleanup as well as a digital one. That means opening up the case, which means turning off your rig and unplugging it from the wall. Don’t want to lose a finger in those fan blades. Most case panels are secured with six-sided Phillips screws, sometimes call a “hex” screw. Or they have thumbscrews, which can usually be removed by hand. Once taken out, keep these together in a small container. An empty coffee mug will do in a pinch.</p>
<p>If you’ve had this PC for several months, you should see a coating of dust inside. That has to be removed, because it insulates surfaces and clogs up fans, which can lead to overheating. With a can of compressed air, spray short bursts at the dust. Long sprays can freeze the inner workings of the can. And tilting the can may also cause its liquid to spray, which contains a solvent that can damage the contact surface. Ideally, do this dusting outside, because you don’t want all that dust floating around indoors.</p>
<p>Case fan filters can also get gnarly. These days, most of them slide out. Spray them with air, or remove them, run them under the tap, and air dry. Fans themselves also get grody. You may need to temporarily remove the CPU fan from the heatsink to clean both items sufficiently. When spraying fans, hold their blades down to prevent them from spinning, otherwise you may damage the motor.</p>
<p>A periodic disinfecting wipe or baby wipe can take care of your mouse, but keyboards usually need you to pull their keycaps to really get at the crustiness underneath. A puller tool is best for this. You can order one online from Newegg or Amazon, and regional computer stores like Fry’s and Microcenter usually sell them. Some people run their boards through the dishwasher. Don’t use detergent or hot water for that, and give them at least a day to fully dry out.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/babywipes_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/babywipes_small.jpg" alt="Gordon agrees, baby wipes work amazingly well for cleaning the surfaces of a dirty desktop or laptop." width="620" height="381" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Gordon agrees, baby wipes work amazingly well for cleaning the surfaces of a dirty desktop or laptop.</strong></p>
<p>Last but not least, don’t forget to wipe the dust off your monitor’s screen. But don’t use conventional glass cleaner, because it can permanently damage the panel. You can buy screen-cleaning kits from most office supply stores, or you can use a spare microfiber cloth, like the kind made for camera lenses. Pharmacies also stock these. Just gently wipe the screen with it. If you need some liquid to clean the screen, spray your cloth with plain water from a mister. Never spray the screen itself, because the liquid can drip into the panel housing and corrode the components within.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/kitten_p34_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/kitten_p34_small.jpg" alt="Tuxie the cat, pointing out a spot Josh missed while cleaning." width="620" height="521" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Tuxie the cat, pointing out a spot we missed while cleaning.</strong></p>
<h4>An Ounce of Prevention</h4>
<p>If you’ve just cleaned out a rig that’s never seen a proper cleaning, you’re probably wondering what you can do to avoid such horrors in the future. Fan filters are obviously one option. If they’re not built into your case, you can get them from sites like Newegg, Amazon, and Frozen CPU. Some have magnets, and you just slap them on; others need to be screwed in. To get the correct sizing, measure your fan diagonally with a ruler. The most common size is 120mm. A filter’s dense mesh will reduce airflow and increase temps in the case, so there’s a trade-off. Even the best filter will not completely eliminate dust, it will only reduce the number of times per year that you need to clean the insides. Smokers and owners of furry pets will also need to clean more often than usual. Periodically brushing those critters will help reduce buildup.</p>
<p>And we don’t know if we have to mention this, but washing your hands a few times over the course of the day will also help prevent unsightly crud from building up on your input devices. This is especially important after a meal or after spending time outdoors. And speaking of food, try to keep it away from your keyboard, which is a crumb magnet and said to be dirtier than a toilet. If your mouse pad has an old-style fabric surface, you may want to consider eliminating it altogether (unless your desk is made of glass), or switching to one made of plastic or metal—materials that can be cleaned quickly and easily.</p>
<h3>Nuke it from orbit</h3>
<p><strong>Nothing can save LV426, so when it’s too mangled or infested, just nuke it</strong></p>
<p>We won’t bother telling you to back up your data before you send your OS to meet its maker, because that is too obvious. But before you nuke the OS, make sure you have everything you need.</p>
<p>What might not be obvious is that because of piracy, a lot of the more expensive software packages require activation, which also requires you to deactivate any serial numbers before you begin your bombing run. Most professional Adobe packages work this way, so if you’re running Photoshop, Illustrator, or any locally stored creative suite, be sure to open the app, click Help, and then Deactivate. Make sure you’ve done it correctly by firing up the program again to see if it asks you to activate. If it does, you’re good to go; keep in mind you’ll need Internet access to successfully do this. Also keep in mind that if you deactivate a piece of software, then upgrade your system, the software might think it’s a different computer, which can complicate re-activation.</p>
<p>The activation process varies on a program-to-program basis, so use Google if you run into any issues. Microsoft’s Office suites react the same as the operating system, and any significant change in hardware will trigger a reactivation. The bottom line: If you have a mission critical application that you absolutely have to have up and running as soon as possible, be sure to know what the re-activation process is before you pull the trigger so there are no surprises. Some apps require you to contact the vendor for a new code before they will run, which is a wonderful thing to learn at midnight Friday before a three-day weekend when you need the app that night.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/adobe_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/adobe_small.jpg" alt="In order to reinstall certain software, such as Adobe products, you must first deactivate the serial key." width="620" height="444" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>In order to reinstall certain software, such as Adobe products, you must first deactivate the serial key.</strong></p>
<p>There are other apps you should also pay attention to. First up, browser bookmarks. Chrome will let you sync your bookmarks on other machines, but you need to set it up to do so. If you’re into the old-school method, you can also export your bookmarks file as HTML and then re-import it. You’ll want to make sure you have a copy of your iTunes library handy, too, which is located in C:\Users\Username\My Music. Be sure to deauthorize iTunes while you’re at it. You’ll also want to back up your Steam library so that you don’t have to re-download all your games. To do this in Steam, click Steam in the upper left-hand corner, select Backup and Restore Games, then follow the prompts. Alternatively, you can do it manually by copying the entire Steam directory over. You no longer have to worry about save-game files, since they are now all automatically saved to the “Steam Cloud.”</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/steam_backup_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/steam_backup_small.jpg" alt="Steam includes a built-in Backup and Restore tool, and we recommend using it." width="620" height="362" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Steam includes a built-in Backup and Restore tool, and we recommend using it.</strong></p>
<p>Your final stop on this trail of tears is to make sure you have all the drivers you need for anything connected to your PC. At the very minimum, be sure to have your chipset and LAN drivers, as those always go first, and with an Internet connection you can always download anything else you need care of the helpful SlimDrivers utility. Don’t forget your printer drivers, though, and it doesn’t hurt to download Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8.1 either, though Windows Update could also do it for you.</p>
<p>Once you’ve deactivated your software, collected all the serial keys you need, made sure your Steam and iTunes libraries are backed up, saved your browser bookmarks, and have all your drivers, you are ready to proceed. Before you reboot your PC to reinstall, be sure to take a moment to consider all the amazing times it’s given you. Once that’s complete, shut her down, and we’ll see you on the other side.</p>
http://www.maximumpc.com/restore_computer_2014#commentsAdobeapplicationmalwareMay issues 2014restore computerSoftwareOffice ApplicationsSoftwareFeaturesMon, 15 Sep 2014 22:49:00 +0000Maximum PC staff28340 at http://www.maximumpc.comBroken Age Reviewhttp://www.maximumpc.com/broken_age_review_2014
<!--paging_filter--><h3>Two stories, tons of creativity, yummy ice cream, no grog</h3>
<p>That’s fair advice for the half of you who will start out Broken Age in a miserable funk instead of a monster-filled fairy tale. At least, that’s how we felt when we initially began our trip through Tim Schafer’s imaginative title—the first half of a two-part, point-and-click adventure from the industry veteran whose previous credits stand well on their own within the genre: Day of the Tentacle, The Secret of Monkey Island, Full Throttle, et cetera.</p>
<p>The game splits the two protagonists’ (seemingly) separate story lines right from the start. We started our journey with the boy, Shay, but found the initial ramp-up to his adventure a bit too convincing.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/2_small_26.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/2_small_25.jpg" alt="It’s no Mystery Science Theater movie warning, that’s for sure." title="Broken Age" width="620" height="388" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>It’s no Mystery Science Theater movie warning, that’s for sure.</strong></p>
<p>Without spoiling too much of the plot, Shay is trapped on a spaceship that goes above and beyond to protect him from the harshness of growing up. Shay could not be any more apathetic to the idea of daily life with his “mother,” a benevolent, computerized AI of sorts, who washes him, feeds him his daily cereal, and sends him on “adventures” that end in hugs, piles of ice cream, and, most likely, a bout of depression.</p>
<p>The other protagonist of this half-game, Vella, presents a more compelling story line. In this case, you’re playing the classic damsel in distress. Rather than being eaten by a giant monster as part of her town’s sacrificial ritual to avoid destruction, she decides to go on a one-woman crusade to slay said monster herself.</p>
<p>While Vella’s story line is a bit more action-packed—or at least, feels more so as a result of its classic slay-the-dragon-like premise—we actually found ourselves more proud of our experience in Shay’s adventure. Our favorite moment involved trying to find a way to “kill” our character, for lack of a better way to say it, in order to see if his daily monotony could be averted somehow. Spoiler: It can.</p>
<p>That’s the most challenging example of the game’s puzzles that we could come up with, as Broken Age feels perfectly balanced between “breeze on by” and “consult game FAQs” for its overall difficulty. You get just enough quirky items to keep you thinking about what goes where without feeling overwhelmed with options—this isn’t a 20-item-inventory, combine-every-gizmo kind of adventure title.</p>
<p>While Broken Age features no hint system, which might frustrate those looking for an extra boost or two in some head-scratching moments, you do have the option to switch between the two separate”story lines at a moment’s notice. Think Day of the Tentacle, only, your actions in the two stories don’t affect each other—a somewhat curious oversight that we hope developer Double Fine Productions changes up in the game’s second half.</p>
<p>There’s no real point to spending much time talking about the game’s graphics, as you’ll fall in love with the beautiful visuals the moment you start adventuring. Kudos to Broken Age’s original orchestration as well—it’s the bread keeping the delicious presentation together. Sharp writing, endless wit, and excellent characterization (with similarly awesome voice talent) all work in tandem to deliver a welcome arrival to a genre whose blockbuster titles are not always at the forefront of gamers’ minds.</p>
<p>You won’t forget Broken Age; in fact, we think you’ll be clamoring for quite a while to see how chapter one’s big cliffhanger ends up. More, Tim Schafer! More!</p>
<p><strong>$25,</strong> <a href="http://www.brokenagegame.com/">www.brokenagegame.com</a><strong><a href="http://www.brokenagegame.com/">,</a> ESRB: n/a</strong></p>
http://www.maximumpc.com/broken_age_review_2014#commentsBroken Agemaximum pcMay issues 2014SoftwareSoftwareReviewsWed, 20 Aug 2014 14:57:20 +0000David Murphy28383 at http://www.maximumpc.comA Crash Course to Editing Images in Adobe Lightroomhttp://www.maximumpc.com/crash_course_editing_images_adobe_lightroom_2014
<!--paging_filter--><p><strong>When your images aren’t up to snuff, there’s always photo-editing software</strong></p>
<p>Photography can be impenetrable from the gear to actually shooting and then the image editing software is a whole other uphill battle. Even with Adobe introducing Lightroom as a lightweight Photoshop alternative, it can be daunting to see a screen full of sliders as a complete novice. To help get you from serial Instagramer to amateur photographer, here’s a crash course to making your images look great with just a few steps in Lightroom.</p>
<p><img src="http://www.maximumpc.com/files/u170397/lightroom_crash_course_top.jpg" width="620" height="419" style="font-weight: bold;" /></p>
<h3 dir="ltr">Why you should shoot in RAW</h3>
<p>First off, before we get to editing any images, it’s super important to start shooting RAW format images in case you haven’t already. Unlike JPEGs, RAW files are uncompressed digital negatives that carry much more information. This in turn makes them easier to work with in Lightroom or any image editor. Thanks to this full allotment of the data packed into RAW files, you can fix more images otherwise destined for the trash heap such as blue-tinged messes or almost completely black frames.</p>
<p>If that wasn’t enough to sell you on shooting in RAW, this entire guide was done using the uncompressed format to show off and take advantage of the full image editing power of Lightroom.</p>
<h3 dir="ltr">Getting started</h3>
<p><img src="/files/u170397/image_import.jpg" width="620" height="324" /></p>
<p>The first thing you’ll need to in Lightroom is to migrate your images of course. Upon starting Adobe Lightroom, navigate your mouse up to File and select “Import Photos and Video” (Ctrl+Shift+I). Another shortcut users can take advantage of is Lightroom will auto-detect any memory cards or cameras plugged into the computer.</p>
<p>Lightroom will automatically drop images into dated folders. Unfortunately (or fortunately for some) this is programmed into the software, but users can always rename their folders. More importantly keywording your photos will be an indispensable tool to manage, search, and organize your images.</p>
<h3 dir="ltr">Getting around inside lightroom</h3>
<p><img src="/files/u170397/main_screen.jpg" width="620" height="333" /></p>
<p>Once your images are all loaded into the library we can start editing one by clicking over (or hitting "D" on the keyboard) to the “Develop” screen. On the right edge of the screen users will find a list of settings that will allow them to tweak their images.</p>
<p>There’s a lot to take in with Lightroom’s interface, but the most important thing users will navigate to are the filmstrip along the bottom to navigate images. Clicking anywhere on the image displayed in the center window, meanwhile, will zoom into the frame.</p>
<p>Just beneath the featured picture there’s also a box designated with “X|Y” that will allow you to view the original image next to their processed counterpart. The button to the left of this aforementioned comparison toggle will return the window to normal, displaying only the final picture. Along the left side of the screen users will find a history log of all the edits made so far to each individual photo--and speaking of image settings, they’re all stacked on the right side of the window. At the bottom of this list of editing options there's also a handy "Previous" button to let users undo one chance or "Reset" to start all over again.</p>
<h3 dir="ltr">Fix your framing</h3>
<p><img src="/files/u170397/image_rotate.jpg" width="620" height="333" /></p>
<p>Sometimes in the rush to capture that decisive moment there isn’t enough time to line up a perfect composition. But as long as the subject in the photo is in focus and your camera has enough megapixels, there’s always the option to crop the image.</p>
<p>The crop tool is located on right, underneath the histogram, and is designated by a boxed grid icon closest to the left. Depending on the shot it might be smart to cut away some of the background to isolate the subject. Alternatively, cropping could come in handy to remove a busy or boring background (otherwise known as negative space). Sticklers for completely level images can also bring their mouse cursor to the edge of the frame to rotate the picture as well.</p>
<h3 dir="ltr">Red Eye Correction</h3>
<p><img src="/files/u170397/red_eye_correction.jpg" width="620" height="364" /></p>
<p>Red eyes and flash photography seem to be inseparable despite all our technological advances, but at least it has gotten incredibly easy to fix this niggling issue. Located just two icons to the right from the Framing icon, clicking on Red Eye Correction will give you a new cursor that you'll want to select any red eyes in the photo. After that Lightroom will use the point users select and auto detect red pupils.</p>
<h3 dir="ltr">White balance</h3>
<p><img src="/files/u170397/white_balance.jpg" width="620" height="418" /></p>
<p>Lighting is one of the toughest things in photography, especially when there’s a mix of sunlight and a blue hued lightbulb. Not only do the two different types of warm and cool light clash, they also completely throw off all the colors in your photos. With this in mind shifting the white balance should be one of the very first stops on your image editing train. Lightroom comes with a series of preset white balance settings just as cameras do with options such as daylight, shade, tungsten, and flash just to name a few.</p>
<p>There's also the option to have Lightroom figure it out all on its own and most of the time it does an admirable job of picking out the right type of lighting. In case anything still looks a little off, there are also sliders that users can move around. Each slider is fairly self explanatory—shifting the top knob leftwards will make the image take on a blue shade while shifting towards yellow will cause your image to take on a sepia tone. The one underneath splits the spectrum between green and violet.</p>
<p>For those wanting a bit more fine tuned control with a point-and-click solution users should select the eyedropper tool. Simply hover the dropper over to a neutral gray or white area and clicking it will have Lightroom take a best guess on white balance from that one spot.</p>
<p><em>Click on to the next page where we'll dive into more editing magic.<br /></em></p>
<hr />
<h3 dir="ltr">Getting to the Meat</h3>
<p>Now that we’ve colored corrected the image and fixed up the composition, it's time to adjust the exposure. But before we start, there’s no hard and fast rule for what is the perfect image. It does not have to be a perfectly balanced image where everything in the frame is evenly illuminated. There’s nothing wrong with having harsh shadows or a blindingly bright spot—in fact it can actually be the thematic part of the picture you want to accentuate.</p>
<p>Without further ado, here’s are the main ways you can use Lightroom to manipulate your images.</p>
<ul>
<li>
<h3 dir="ltr"><img src="/files/u170397/basic_settings.jpg" width="200" height="610" style="float: right; margin: 10px;" /></h3>
<p>Exposure: In a nutshell this lets users make the entire image brighter or darker.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Contrast: Contrast changes the difference between the bright and dark parts of the image. Lowering the contrast evens out the exposure making it helpful if the picture was caught with extremely dark and bright sections. As such it can help to restore parts of the frame caught in shadows, but the trade off is this can also cause the entire picture to turn gray. On the flipside making photos more contrasty will produce a harsher look and cause colors to intensify.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Highlights: Similar to affecting the brightness of the image, highlights specifically tones down the brightest parts of the frame. In most cases this could be useful for bringing back clouds lost in the blinding sunlight. Alternatively, photographers will want to tweak the highlights when photographing anything with a backlit screen or lights at night.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Shadows: On the flipside of highlights changing the shadows will brighten or darken any areas caught in shade.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Whites: Despite the fact we’ve already adjusted the bright parts of the frame, changing the White level in the image appears to do the same thing. Appears. What changing the white level really does is affect the lightest (or brightest) tones in the image, whereas highlights control the midtones in the frame.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Blacks: At the opposite end of the spectrum blacks dictate how the darkest part of the images look. This can be helpful to make sure dark colors aren't grayed out when you've already brightened up the shadows.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Auto Tone: Aside from setting all the parameters manually, Lightroom also has a handy Auto Tone tool. As with auto white balance, auto tone automatically adjusts the picture for what the program thinks will look best.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h3 dir="ltr">Time to get technical</h3>
<p>Aside from the mix of sliders and staring at the image preview, a much more technical way of editing is using the histogram, which appears at the very top of the right side panel. Essentially it displays a graphical overview of the pictures’s full tonal range in which darker pixels fill out on the left side of as they lighten towards the right. Every edit we just explained can be done by clicking on parts of this histogram and dragging them around. Either way works so it's really up to your preference.</p>
<h3 dir="ltr">Making photos “pop”</h3>
<p>The tonal curve isn’t all there is to editing images. Just underneath the exposure settings is something called presence. Starting with Clarity, users can increase the sharpness of their images or give them a dreamy, hazy quality. Saturation intensifies colors in the photo, which can be useful to bringing back some color on gray and cloudy days.</p>
<p>Vibrance does a similar job of intensifying colors except in a slightly smarter fashion than Saturation. Rather than uniformly bumping up the hues in the frame, Vibrance increases the intensity of muted colors whilst leaving already bright colors alone.</p>
<p><em>Next up Sharpening, Noise Reduction, Lens Correction, and more.<br /></em></p>
<hr />
<h3 dir="ltr">Detail control</h3>
<p>Located in the "Detail" section below Lightroom’s "Basic" editing options you’ll find options to sharpen and reduce the noise of photos.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Sharpening</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong><img src="/files/u170397/sharpening_mask.jpg" width="620" height="363" /><br /></strong></p>
<p>Firstly to quell any misconceptions, Sharpening won’t fix images for soft focus, camera shake, or any mistakes made at the time of taking the shot. Rather sharpening is a tool to accentuate details already in the photo. Just don’t over do it as over sharpening images introduces a slew of new problems including harsh edges, grainy noise, and smooth lines transforming into jagged zigzags.</p>
<p>There are four parameters when it comes sharpening images:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p><strong>The Alt key:</strong> Well before we actually get started with any settings, holding down the Alt key is an invaluable tool that will give you a clearer, alternate view of what’s going on while you move around the sliders.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Amount:</strong> As you might have guessed this increases the amount of sharpening you add. This value starts at zero and as users get towards the high-end they will end up enhancing the noise in the image along with sharpening details.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Radius:</strong> Image sharpening mainly refines edges, but the Radius can be extended by a few pixels. In this case the radius number corresponds with the number of pixels Lightroom will apply sharpening around the edges in the picture. Having a high radius number will intensify details with a thicker edge.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Detail:</strong> The Detail slider determines how many edges on the image get sharpened. With lower values the image editor will only target large edges in the frame, meanwhile a value of a 100 will include every small edge.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Masking:</strong> Although every other slider has been about incorporating more sharpening into the image, masking does the opposite by telling Lightroom which areas should not be sharpened. Just keep in mind masking works best from image with an isolated background. The sharpening masks' effectiveness is significantly more limited with busy images, where there are edges everywhere.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Noise Reduction</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong><img src="/files/u170397/noise_reduction.jpg" width="620" height="364" /><br /></strong></p>
<p>Noise is unavoidable whether its due to shooting higher ISOs or a result from bumping up the exposure in post—luckily there’s a way to save images from looking like sandpaper.</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p><strong>Luminance:</strong> Our first stop towards reducing noise. Increasing this value will smooth over any stippling on the photo. Take care not to raise this too high as Lightroom will begin to sacrificing the detail and turn the picture into a soft mess.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Detail:</strong> In case users want to better preserve the sharp details in their image, they should increase the Detail slider.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Contrast:</strong> This is specifically used to tone down the amount of chromatic noise—typically green and red flecks that make their way into high ISO images. Unless there is colored noise in the image, it’s best to leave this set to 0.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<ul> </ul>
<h3 dir="ltr">Lens Correction</h3>
<p>Moving on, we’re going to start correcting for imperfections in the lens by scrolling down the right sidebar to "Lens Corrections."</p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Lens profiles</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong><img src="/files/u170397/lens_correction.jpg" width="620" height="333" /><br /></strong></p>
<p>Enter the round hole, square peg problem. No matter how well engineered an expensive lens is, it will always produce some amount of distortion thanks to the nature of curved lenses filtering light onto flat sensors. The good news is this is the easiest thing to correct for. Simply click on "Enable Profile Corrections" on the "Basic" pane of Lens Corrections and Lightroom will do the work for you. Witness as your images are automatically corrected for barrel distortion and vignetting (dark corners). It's pretty much fool proof unless of course Adobe has not made a Lens Profile for the lens you shot with. It also might not be necessary to always click this option on as some photos might look better with the vingetting and distortion.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Color Fringing</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong><img src="/files/u170397/fringing.jpg" width="620" height="333" /><br /></strong></p>
<p>Fringing for who don’t know appears as a purple or blue and green outline when an object is captured against a bright background—the most common example being a tree limb with the bright sky behind it. It can be a minor quibble with photos in most cases but certain lenses fringe so badly it can make a scene look like it was outlined with a color pencil.</p>
<p>Luckily getting rid of fringing in Lightroom can be easy as spotting it and then clicking on it. To start, select the Color pane within the Lens Corrections and use the eyedropper just as we did with white balance. Usually fringing appears at points of high contrast so bring the cursor over to dark edges that meet a bright background. It might take a little bit of sniffing around but stay vigilant and you should be able to spot some misplaced purple or green-blue colors eventually. Some lenses are guilty of fringing terribly while others control it well, so it’s really up to you if the flaw is noticeable enough to merit correction.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Chromatic Aberration</strong></p>
<p>Since we’re here anyway, go ahead and click on the option to remove chromatic aberration—another type of color fringing where wavelengths of light are blurring together—since it’s as simple as turning the option on.</p>
<h3 dir="ltr">You Can’t Save Them All</h3>
<p><img src="/files/u170397/cannot_save.jpg" width="620" height="333" /></p>
<p>Despite how extensive this guide might appear, there’s even more editing magic to mine from Lightroom—we haven’t even gotten to making black and white images, or split toning! This is only a crash course to help you make your images look better and the only way to master photography is to keep on shooting and practicing.</p>
<p>In the same breath, however, we would recommend users should not use Lightroom as a crutch. Although Lightroom can do a lot to salvage poorly shot images, it’s no excuse to just shoot half-assed and expect to fix things up afterwards. Otherwise post processing will end up eating up most of the shooter's time and eventually they’ll realize that there are even certain images Lightroom can’t save (as evidenced by the one shown above). Image editing software can be a great help, but its no substitute for good old skilled photography.</p>
http://www.maximumpc.com/crash_course_editing_images_adobe_lightroom_2014#commentsAdobeimage editingLighroomLighroom crash courseMedia Applicationsphotoshoppost processingSoftwareSoftwareFeaturesWed, 06 Aug 2014 17:43:10 +0000Kevin Lee28246 at http://www.maximumpc.comThe Cheapskate’s Guide to Power Computinghttp://www.maximumpc.com/cheap_PC_2014
<!--paging_filter--><h3>How to save lots of money without sacrificing quality, performance, or features</h3>
<p>Our Cheapskate’s Guide has become an annual installment in the magazine, because for most of us working stiffs, the ability to stretch a dollar and get more for less is always relevant. For some of us, it means that our love of technology and all its amazing uses won’t get in the way of us paying the rent or putting new Crocs on our kids’ feet. For others, saving money is more a matter of personal pride—the result of knowing the ins and outs of getting a good deal. Only suckers pay the sticker price! Whatever motivates your cheapskate tendencies, we say embrace them, and this year we offer our support in the form of tips for savvy shopping, guidance on making wise hardware purchases, pointers to killer deals in digital entertainment, and a whole lot more. Just don’t spend your savings foolishly!</p>
<p><img src="/files/u154082/cheap_pc.jpg" alt="cheap PC" title="cheap PC" width="620" height="466" /></p>
<h3>Get the Most from the Hardware You Own</h3>
<p><strong>Before you spend money on an upgrade, make sure you’ve milked your hardware for all it’s worth</strong></p>
<h4>Overclock Your CPU</h4>
<p>Overclocking your CPU can be as easy as ticking a box in your BIOS, and it can open up decent performance gains that are achievable with a relatively inexpensive aftermarket cooler such as the $35 <a title="212 evo cooler" href="http://www.maximumpc.com/cooler_master_hyper_212_evo_review_0" target="_blank">Hyper 212 Evo</a> from Cooler Master. Most Intel boards are multiplier locked, but you can still adjust the Turbo clock and/or the base clock quite easily in the BIOS. Be careful though, as most modern CPUs will top out at just a bit above 4GHz due to cooling and voltage constraints. We’ve gone up to 4.2GHz or so on air and a bit higher on water, but that’s the ceiling these days unless you’re willing to shell out a mint for an Extreme processor from Intel or a 5GHz part from AMD, and a custom water loop to cool either. Keep in mind, however, that it’s doubtful you’re being held back by your CPU unless you are doing intense multithreaded video encoding.</p>
<h4>Overclock Your GPU</h4>
<p>Overclocking your GPU will provide some benefits, but keep in mind we’re talking about a 5–10 percent improvement, typically, which might not be enough to overcome your particular frame-rate deficiency. In some cases you will see a 20 percent boost, but that’s not guaranteed. The cheapest way to get an FPS boost is always to just buy a second GPU for CrossFire or SLI, because, though scaling isn’t perfect, you should be able to see performance improve by 75–80 percent. Also, by the time you add a second card, whatever card you already own is typically much cheaper, making this the best-bang-for-your-buck upgrade you can perform.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/evga_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/evga_small.jpg" alt="EVGA PrecisionX makes it easy to overclock your GPU, examine temps and voltages, and more." title="EVGA PrecisionX" width="620" height="407" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>EVGA PrecisionX makes it easy to overclock your GPU, examine temps and voltages, and more.</strong></p>
<h4>Move to an SSD</h4>
<p>We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again with no hyperbole. Moving to an SSD is one of the best PC upgrades in the history of mankind. Whereas upgrading other subsystems like RAM, CPU, and motherboard oftentimes leads to small and imperceptible performance gains, an SSD upgrade is like hitting your PC with nitrous, and its effects are immediate, system-wide, and like night-and-day compared to a spinning hard drive. Your PC will boot in half the time, programs will launch instantly, and there’s no more waiting for the platters to spin up or for the drive’s read heads to find your data. SSDs also emit no heat or noise, and with no moving parts they are just as awesome in a laptop as they are in a desktop. Get one today and your life will change.</p>
<h4>Trim Your Existing SSD Often</h4>
<p>The Trim command for Windows is sent to your SSD when it’s idle, telling the drive that it’s OK to permanently delete files marked as garbage, so that the next time data needs to be written to a block it can take place without the aforementioned deletion delaying the process. Imagine if every time you had to write to a block, the controller had to perform a delete operation first! Performance would suck, which is why Trim exists. But here’s the problem: If your SSD holds your OS, it may rarely be in “idle” mode, and nobody knows when the Trim command actually runs. So, do your drive a favor and manually Trim it. In Windows 8 it can be done via the Tools menu (under the drive’s Properties) by punching the Optimize button. Older OSes don’t offer this feature, though, so you’ll need a third-party tool provided by your drive manufacturer. We know that the software available for Intel and Samsung drives supports this, but we’re not aware of any other free tool that lets you do it on drives of other brands.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/ssd_trim_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/ssd_trim_small.jpg" alt="Some SSDs include software that lets you manually Trim your drive—a handy feature for those on older OSes." width="620" height="349" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Some SSDs include software that lets you manually Trim your drive—a handy feature for those on older OSes.</strong></p>
<h4>Reinstall Windows</h4>
<p>Nothing runs faster, not even a Kenyan, than a fresh install of Windows. It’s true that the arrival of SSDs has negated this effect somewhat, but in our experience, a squeaky-clean install is noticeably perkier than a thrashed and litter-strewn 2-year-old installation. We know most of you pride yourselves on your years of uptime, but there comes a time when too many weird and unexplainable phenomena (updates not working, general slowness, etc.) will require you to throw up your hands and start over. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, and your new OS’s snappy performance will make you feel better in the end.</p>
<h4>Add RAM—to a point</h4>
<p>If you’re using less than 8GB of RAM there’s a very real chance your system is using almost all of it from time to time, if you’re like us: a gnarly multitasker. Your OS will take a few gigs right off the bat, and browser tabs can eat another gig; open Photoshop and it’s all over but the crying. We don’t say this often, but if you only have 4GB of RAM, double it pronto. If you have some leftover Christmas money, treat yourself to 16GB just to be safe.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<hr />
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Make Realistic Purchases</h3>
<p><strong>Don’t buy more performance than you need</strong></p>
<p>We’ll admit we’re guilty of pushing a Maximum PC worldview, but we also advocate upgrades that will actually make a difference in your day-to-day computing rather than just looking good in a forum signature. Here are the most often abused upgrade paths—be sure to steer clear of them.</p>
<h4>PSU</h4>
<p>You can run dual GTX 680s and nine hard drives off a 600W PSU, and we know because we’ve done it. When buying a PSU, use an online calculator to tabulate how much power your system will actually need instead of just buying an 850-or-higher wattage PSU. That said, don’t buy a no-name unit. Quality and reputation are important here.</p>
<h4>Multi-core and/or Hyper-Threaded CPU</h4>
<p>Everyone loves the idea of an eight- or 12-core CPU, but the reality is, unless you’re rendering 3D models or doing hardcore video work, most of the applications you use will never touch those extra cores, so don’t waste your money on them. The same goes for Hyper-Threading, which is virtual CPU cores—most apps don’t even know they exist. In our testing, gaming performance actually dropped with Hyper-Threading enabled, and the only apps that improved by adding cores were Adobe Premiere, HandBrake, and other apps of that nature.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/detail_axi_psu_cutout_a_closed_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/detail_axi_psu_cutout_a_closed_small.jpg" alt="A badass PSU can be overkill, even for a high-end build. " width="620" height="465" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>A badass PSU can be overkill, even for a high-end build. </strong></p>
<h4>Chassis</h4>
<p>A full-tower looks good IRL and in a forum signature, but can be a massive waste of money and space unless you’re water-cooling. Otherwise you get a whole lot of real estate that goes unused. If that’s your bag, we get it; we like a roomy interior, too. But these cases cost more than twice what a generous mid-tower will set you back, and we’d prefer to put that cash into a GPU or SSD.</p>
<h4>RAM</h4>
<p>Most home users will get by just fine with 8GB, and extreme photo and video editors might need 16GB or 32GB in really extreme situations. Among the Maximum PC staffers, 8GB or 16GB is the norm, and we have never had a need for more than that. Even amateur photographers and videographers will be fine with 16GB. Overclocked RAM is only beneficial in certain applications and can help with CPU overclocking, but for average use and a regular diet of gaming, stick with DDR3/1600 and you’ll be just fine.</p>
<h3>Proceed with Caution</h3>
<p><strong>Your name is Mark and the store knows it</strong></p>
<h4>The New Phone Kit Bundle</h4>
<p>These kits typically include a generic, low-output car charger, generic screen protector, mediocre headset, and a screen protector. The only thing we’d really even consider buying at the store with a new phone purchase is the case. That’s because new phones, tablets, and other mobile items are scientifically proven to be subject to additional gravitational pull the first month you own them (in other words, you’re sure to drop it the day before your case arrives from Amazon).</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/phone_charger_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/phone_charger_small.jpg" alt="Most wireless companies’ “kit” chargers are generic junk." width="620" height="620" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Most wireless companies’ “kit” chargers are generic junk.</strong></p>
<h4>The Fancy Cable</h4>
<p>You need the braided HDMI cables with your HDTV, receiver, or what not, right? No, you don’t. The braids do look beautiful, but nine out of 10 times, it’s just a way to charge you $35 for a cable that would otherwise be $10 or less. Shoot, some big box stores probably make more money on store-branded cables than they do on their other merchandise. As much as we all wish the braided Super Cable did something special, it doesn’t.</p>
<h4>The Extended Warranty</h4>
<p>Most folks know this, but it doesn’t hurt to repeat it: Extended warranties are like gambling and the house always wins. Those extended warranties are pure gravy to the store, which knows that your hardware is 97 percent unlikely to ever fail within the warranty period. That’s why the stores all push them. For most of us, it’s better to just roll the dice.</p>
<h4>Smart Shopping Strategies</h4>
<p><strong>Saving your pennies when purchasing online is easier than you might think</strong></p>
<p>A little bit of time and effort can save you a not-so-insignificant amount of cash when you’re shopping online. Trust us. The last time we went shopping for pants, for example, a quick online scan for promo codes helped us to double-stack savings—turning a measly 20 percent discount into a much more pleasing 65 percent discount (and allowing us to buy two pairs instead of one!). We’re not talking rocket science here, just perseverance. And of course, it pays to know all the most effective techniques.</p>
<h4>Bookmark the Best Deal Sites</h4>
<p>The web is full of “deal sites”—as in, giant listings of items that have either been found by the site itself or posted by its visitors. These items are typically discounted from their regular retail price any number of different ways, from standard sales that sleuths have stumbled across, to creative uses of promotional codes and other offers, to the leaking of special URLs reserved for a vendor’s “elite” shoppers.</p>
<p>So, which are some of the best resources?</p>
<p>SlickDeals: The alpha and omega of deal sites, this super-popular site is a great, general resource for deals spanning all kinds of categories. You can even have the site email you when new deals pop up for certain products you’re interested in. <a href="http://www.slickdeals.net/">www.slickdeals.net</a></p>
<p>CheapAssGamer: If you want to narrow your search to video games, then CAG (as it’s affectionately known) is where you’ll find great gaming deals and a vibrant community. <a href="http://www.cheapassgamer.com/">www.cheapassgamer.com</a></p>
<p>Reddit: Yes, there are Reddits for everything, it seems. Hit up /r/deals, /r/dealsreddit, and /r/gamedeals for your general and gaming-related purchases; /r/coupons if you’re keen on promos; and /r/freebies for, well, just that. And of course, don’t forget /r/buildapcsales. <a href="http://www.reddit.com/">www.reddit.com</a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/deals_1_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/deals_1_small.jpg" alt="The site Deals.woot.com is another great example of a community- driven deal aggregator; we tend to like sites that have a bit of a competitive element, as it usually leads to better deals!" width="620" height="411" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>The site Deals.woot.com is another great example of a community-driven deal aggregator; we tend to like sites that have a bit of a competitive element, as it usually leads to better deals!</strong></p>
<p>DealNews: Second verse, same as the first. This site, like SlickDeals, dishes out a whole ton of bargains across an equally large number of categories. There’s no forum, just straight-up savings. <a href="http://dealnews.com/">www.dealnews.com</a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/deals_2_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/deals_2_small.jpg" alt="Signing up for e-newsletters might not seem like a hot tip, but Newegg’s often delivers promos and prices you simply won’t find listed elsewhere." width="620" height="489" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Signing up for e-newsletters might not seem like a hot tip, but Newegg’s often delivers promos and prices you simply won’t find listed elsewhere.</strong></p>
<p>FatWallet: While we’re a bit more keen on SlickDeals’s listings, we find the FatWallet forums to be irresistible. Promo codes, coupon codes, and helpful advice—especially for travel and finance—make this site’s giant community worth checking out. The bonus cashback you can get for listed deals is the icing on the cake. <a href="http://www.fatwallet.com/">www.fatwallet.com</a></p>
<h4>Leverage Coupon Codes</h4>
<p>Our first stop when shopping is a handy little site called RetailMeNot (<a href="http://www.retailmenot.com/">www.retailmenot.com</a>), a great place to quickly find active promo codes for a variety of online shopping sites. If that doesn’t turn up results, we look to other sites like Coupon Predator (<a href="http://www.couponpredator.com/">www.couponpredator.com</a>), Google, and even a Twitter search to see what’s out there. That might sound primitive, but it works.</p>
<p>Beyond that, browser extensions like <a href="https://joinhoney.com/">Honey</a> or Coupons at Checkout will automatically search for promo codes when you go to make a purchase. Unfortunately, they might also pull in coupons for larger retail sites that have absolutely nothing to do with what you’re buying (a bit of a tease).</p>
<p>And don’t forget newsletters! Newegg is a great example of a site that’ll often stuff interesting deals into the emails it blasts your way, as is TigerDirect (and Mwave, Directron, etc.). All of the various Groupon-like sites—LivingSocial, Amazon Local, Travelzoo, to name a few—are also worth checking out for deals in categories beyond electronics.</p>
<p>No matter what you sign up for, however, we recommend that you fire up a Gmail account and use the ol’ trick of adding a plus symbol and extra characters to your email address for newsletter purposes (so, Tom+deals@maximumpc.com instead of Tom@maximumpc.com). Your email will still route to the same location, but you’ll have a much stronger ability to filter the bounty of messages you’ll receive.</p>
<h4>Browser Plugins for Bargain Shopping</h4>
<p>It’s always great when your web browser itself can do your deal hunting. Of course, you’re going to have to install an extension or two to transform Chrome or Firefox into a shopping machine.</p>
<p>One of our favorites is (oddly) called <a href="http://camelcamelcamel.com/">Camelcamelcamel</a>; it ties into the website of the same name, and tracks the prices of things you’re looking to purchase on Amazon or Bestbuy.com. (It used to work on Newegg as well, but doesn’t as of this article’s writing). The extensions <a href="http://www.priceblink.com/webcpns/browser-add-on/">Priceblink</a> and <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/invisiblehand/lghjfnfolmcikomdjmoiemllfnlmmoko?hl=en">Invisible Hand</a> are also worth having in your back pocket, as they’ll automatically notify you if they can find a lower price for items you’re looking at on a particular retailer’s website.</p>
<p>If you’re a huge Amazon fan, you can grab the company’s “<a href="http://www.amazon.com/wishlist/get-button">Add to Wish List</a>” extension. When you’re shopping anywhere else, simply click the little button in your browser to automatically add whatever you’re looking at to your Amazon Wish List (presumably, to purchase later with your fancy Amazon Prime account).</p>
<p>While it’s not a browser extension, we just have to mention the web app <a href="https://www.slice.com/">Slice</a>—sign up for the free service, and you’ll be able to get notifications on your smartphone when your packages have shipped and when they’re delivered!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/deals_3_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/deals_3_small.jpg" alt="Camelcamelcamel does a great job of providing a bit of historical context for official and third-party Amazon prices." width="620" height="543" /></a></p>
<h4>Price Matching</h4>
<p>It’s no secret that you can often score much better deals with a bit of online sleuthing than you can in a brick-and-mortar store. What if you want your brand-new video game today, however, instead of having to wait for it to ship out from some random online retailer?</p>
<p>Here’s the catch: While a number of retail chains like Staples, Best Buy, Target, and Wal-Mart (to name a few) will price-match against online entities like Amazon, their policies can all differ regarding specifics. Best Buy, for example, limits the number of sites it’ll consider for price matching, and any items that are subject to “deal of the day” specials (or the like) don’t apply—thus rendering price matching a bit moot.</p>
<p>Timing varies with the brick-and-mortar stores, as well. Best Buy, for example, needs to know the lower price you’re trying to match when you go to purchase an item. Target, however, gives you a seven-day window from the point of purchase to find a lower price from a slim list of online retailers.</p>
<p>Our advice? Stick to the deal sites we’ve previously listed; trying to play the price-matching game is more trouble than it’s worth.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/deals_4__small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/deals_4__small.jpg" alt="RefurbMe is a handy site for finding refurbished Apple products for cheap. The tracking element is especially useful, given how products arrive and disappear from Apple’s refurb site." width="620" height="342" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>RefurbMe is a handy site for finding refurbished Apple products for cheap. The tracking element is especially useful, given how products arrive and disappear from Apple’s refurb site.</strong></p>
<h4>The Refurbished Option</h4>
<p>One great way to save cash on your major PC purchases is to go refurb; specifically, items that the manufacturer has received and fixed up (or has decided are eligible for a discounted sale). Perhaps the exterior of the laptop is a wee bit scuffed—you might decide you can live with that for a $300 discount.</p>
<p>Hate all you want, but Apple does a great job of testing and fixing its refurbished goods, even going so far as to offer a one-year limited warranty and full return support as if the item were purchased brand-new. Dell and HP also offer pretty strong warranty and return policies, as does Newegg, but you’ll definitely want to check that whichever store you’re looking to buy refurb from gives you a plethora of return options, to be safe. Amazon, for example, might offer a ton of options for buying used, but you might be bound by the stricter return policy of an individual seller. Caveat emptor.</p>
<p>We didn’t find any strong, comprehensive sites that track refurb sales across a number of different manufacturers and retailers, other than the Apple-centric RefurbMe (<a href="http://www.refurb.me/us/">www.refurb.me</a>).</p>
<h4>Shipping Services</h4>
<p>If you’re a junkie for a particular retail site—Amazon or Newegg spring to mind—then it might be worth your while to sign up for that site’s shipping service, should it offer one. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Prime-One-Year-Membership/dp/B00DBYBNEE">Amazon Prime</a> gives you “free” two-day shipping for an annual fee; Newegg uses <a href="http://www.newegg.com/shoprunner">Shoprunner</a> (also $79 a year), which is a similar service that covers a large number of participating stores simultaneously.</p>
<p>If you don’t want to pay the annual fee, but still want to take advantage of the services for a particular large purchase or shopping spree, you can always sign up for each site’s 30-day trial (so long as you remember to cancel it before the month is up!) Or you can always check out <a href="http://www.freeshipping.org/">FreeShipping.org</a> to see if you can get your purchases sent gratis via a code or deal.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/deals_5_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/deals_5_small.jpg" alt="FreeShipping.org is one-half shipping codes, one-half deals, but definitely worth a stop if you just can’t figure out a way to avoid expensive shipping charges." width="620" height="641" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;</p>
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<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Best Practices for Buying Used Gear</h3>
<p><strong>Or how not to get burned</strong></p>
<h4>Buying a Used Phone</h4>
<p>Buying a used smartphone is an easy way to save hundreds of dollars. The two big places to buy phones and tablets today are eBay and Craigslist. eBay is problematic for picky buyers, as you can’t touch before purchasing. You instead have to rely on the descriptions. If we had to buy a phone on eBay and wanted to improve our chances of being satisfied, we’d stick with vendors who sell dozens or hundreds of phones. These vendors are more concerned with maintaining a reputation, so if you have problems with a phone, returning it shouldn’t be a problem. As always though, read the fine print on returns and refunds before you make a bid.</p>
<p>If you prefer the face-to-face interaction of Craigslist, there are a few tips you should follow. First, for security’s sake, meet in a public place such as a café and never go to a second location with the seller because they “forgot the charger.” (Right, follow them outside with $400 cash in your pocket!). If you’re really leery, ask them to meet you in the lobby of a nearby police station. This applies to any face-to-face transaction, of course.</p>
<p>Kick the tires first! On any phone, the common failure points are headphone jack and charger port. Bring your own ear buds, plug them in, and put light pressure on the cord where it plugs in while playing audio to see if it cuts out. If it does, the port may be damaged. Likewise, plug the phone into the wall and see if the phone will show that it’s charging while putting light pressure on the cord from different angles. If it loses connection at a certain angle, the charging port may be damaged.</p>
<p>Check the phone’s moisture indicators—usually on the battery or inside the phone or hidden inside the headphone jack or card slot. You may need a magnifying glass and flashlight. Most turn dark red or purple after they’ve been exposed to moisture.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/seagate_hard_drive_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/seagate_hard_drive_small.jpg" alt="Some vendors only care if a product is within a warranty period, not who bought it." width="620" height="420" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Some vendors only care if a product is within a warranty period, not who bought it.</strong></p>
<p>Also function-check all of the phone’s physical buttons and switches to make sure they engage and disengage, and check that there are no issues with the touchscreen’s digitizer by testing the corners in particular, since they’re prone to stress. Check the phone’s electronic serial number, or ESN, and make sure it’s not on your carrier’s blocked list. Carefully examine the chassis and screen alignment too, as well as the screws that hold the phone together. If the parts seem out of alignment, or the tamper seal is simply gone, there’s a good chance the “new” phone has been opened up.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/liquiddamageindicatorcomparison_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/liquiddamageindicatorcomparison_small.jpg" alt="These are identical batteries but the one with the red moisture indicator has gone through the washer." /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>These are identical batteries but the one with the red moisture indicator has gone through the washer.</strong></p>
<p>These same rules apply to tablets. The only other test we’d do with a tablet is to try to twist the tablet by the corners very gently. This should exert pressure on the panel and digitizer, and could reveal whether there’s a loose connection from being dropped one time too many. We’d also be a bit more careful about checking the tablet’s screen, so pull up a paint program and view pages of different solid colors to look for dead pixels.</p>
<h4>Buying PC Parts</h4>
<p>Buying used PC parts can be a bit trickier. If you’re buying a used GeForce Titan for $500, you certainly can’t test it in Starbucks. The good news is that most PC parts tend to be pretty resilient. Dead CPUs and GPUs are rare. Some PC parts vendors are very good about honoring warranties regardless of who originally bought the parts, but you’ll want to verify this beforehand. Hard-drive vendors, for example, typically don’t care who bought the drive, as warranties typically start from date of manufacture.</p>
<p>Frankly, buying PC parts face-to-face, where you can’t power them up and test them is almost sketchier than buying from a person on eBay, where the seller is likely to want to protect their reputation, or in a worse-case scenario, eBay itself can intercede in a purchasing dispute.</p>
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<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Stream Everything: Movies, Music, TV, and More</h3>
<p><strong>Cutting the cable has never been easier</strong></p>
<p>Is there anything worse than paying big bucks for a monthly cable subscription and an assortment of Blu-rays? If you have a high-speed Internet connection, you don’t need to anymore. There’s never been a better time to consider cutting the cable, with streaming websites galore and services available for pretty much everything.</p>
<h4>Movies</h4>
<p>It’s a great time to be a movie lover. Between Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Crackle, and Hulu, there are loads of options to choose from. Netflix is still the frontrunner, with its $7.99-per-month streaming plan, huge library with 720p and 1080p “Super HD” video, 5.1 surround sound, and support for nearly every modern device—Roku, Chromecast, mobile phones, and more. Compare that to Amazon Prime Instant Video, which gives Amazon Prime members access to a library of some 40,000 movies and TV episodes as well as some à la carte offerings.</p>
<h4>TV</h4>
<p>If you need the latest TV episodes, Hulu’s your best bet. Recent episodes from most networks are available for free on your PC and upgrading to the $7.99/month Hulu Plus subscription gives you HD streams, expanded device support, and access to Hulu’s backlog.</p>
<p>Netflix and Amazon Instant Video both also include a pretty large selection of TV shows. Recent episodes aren’t always available, but it’s hard to beat paying $7.99 a month for both TV and movies.</p>
<h4>Music</h4>
<p><a href="http://www.maximumpc.com/best_music_streaming_services_roundup2013">Our top pick is still Spotify</a>. With its massive library of ad-supported music, it’s the best option for on-demand music streaming. Pay $4.99/month and all the ads are stripped away. Pay $9.99/month and you get mobile access with offline listening and “Extreme” audio quality (320Kb/s).</p>
<p>Live radio and jukebox fans will love iHeartRadio. It’s a service that gives you access to more than 1,500 live radio stations across the country. It also lets you create customized radio stations that pull from iHeartRadio’s music library of over 15 million songs. iTunes Radio is a newer alternative, but the lack of Android support is pretty unforgivable.</p>
<p>Looking to actually purchase songs? Check the prices on Amazon MP3—chances are good that they’re cheaper than iTunes if not the exact same price (but unencumbered by DRM). If music exploration’s your thing, both NoiseTrade (<a href="http://www.noisetrade.com/">www.noisetrade.com</a>) and the Free Music Archive (<a href="http://www.freemusicarchive.org/">www.freemusicarchive.org</a>) offer free songs from smaller artists.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/netflix_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/netflix_small.jpg" alt="Netflix remains the force to be reckoned with when it comes to streaming commercial content." width="620" height="326" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Netflix remains the force to be reckoned with when it comes to streaming commercial content.</strong></p>
<h4>Books</h4>
<p>If you don’t want to make regular trips to your local library, there are some cheapskate alternatives. Most public libraries offer online checkout of e-books and audio books. How it works largely depends on your local library, but it’s a great option if you’re looking for recent books. If you don’t have a problem reading classics, Project Gutenberg (<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/">www.gutenberg.org</a>) has been around for a long time, collecting public domain books and making them available for free. There’s also the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, which gives Amazon Prime subscribers the chance to borrow one e-book per month from a growing selection of books.</p>
<h4>Sports</h4>
<p>Anyone who’s ever tried to cut the cord knows that sports has always been the sticking point. Unfortunately, not much has changed, and the easiest way to get your sports fix is to stick with cable or hook up a TV tuner for local broadcasts.</p>
<p>If you’re not a regular ESPN or ESPN 2 watcher, you might be able to get by with paid subscriptions to the leagues that you care about most. All of the major sports leagues offer some sort of subscription—with prices as high as $200. The passes usually last for the entire season, but are sometimes gimped by restrictions that might make local games or even playoff games unavailable.</p>
<h3>Chromecast: The Poor Man’s Smart TV</h3>
<p>The Chromecast is Google’s $35 Roku and Apple TV competitor. Plug the 3-inch device into an HDMI port on your TV—plus a USB port for power—and you can stream content from Chromecast-enabled apps on your PC, phone, or tablet, and through Chrome itself. Since it launched last year, Google’s been pushing for further Chromecast development. Some of that has finally paid off with more than a few services now touting official support. Hulu, Pandora, HBO Go, Plex, and more have joined Netflix and Google Play with compatible apps. It’s still got a ways to go before it can really compete with the ease-of-use and accessibility of either the Roku or the Apple TV, but at only $35 it’s hard to argue with super-simple streaming.</p>
<p>Since the Chromecast can only be used as a secondary device, it’s safe to say that it’s not a real threat to dedicated digital media receivers. Having to reach for your phone or laptop to peruse your Netflix queue isn’t nearly as convenient as pressing play on a Roku remote. Google’s continued focus on Chromecast is a good sign and the future of the Chromecast isn’t as bleak as it once was.</p>
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<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Getting XBMC Up and Running</h3>
<p><strong>Open-source media-center goodness for free</strong></p>
<p>If you’re looking for a front end for your media center, look no further than XBMC. It’s completely free, installing it is a cinch, and a massive library of user-created add-ons means that plenty of your favorite services are probably supported.</p>
<h4>1. DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL XBMC</h4>
<p>Download XBMC (<a href="http://xbmc.org/">www.xbmc.org</a>) for the operating system you’re running (image A) and install it. You’ve also got the option of installing XBMCbuntu—a stand-alone OS running on Linux.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/xbmc_1_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/xbmc_1_small.jpg" width="620" height="372" /></a></p>
<h4>2. Update YOUR AUDIO AND VIDEO SETTINGS</h4>
<p>Chances are good that XBMC will pick the right resolution for your setup, but make sure by going to System &gt; Settings &gt; Video output and checking the Resolution option. While you’re in the settings menu, check the Audio output tab to fine-tune your audio settings (<strong>image B</strong>).</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/xbmc_2_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/xbmc_2_small.jpg" width="620" height="355" /></a></p>
<h4>3. IMPORT YOUR LOCAL CONTENT</h4>
<p>A media center is pretty worthless without any media. Fortunately, importing content into XBMC is ridiculously easy. Select the Video or Music tab and click Add Source. Browse to where you keep your content, click the folder, and give it a name (<strong>image C</strong>).</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/xbmc_3a_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/xbmc_3a_small.jpg" width="620" height="383" /></a></p>
<h4>4. INSTALL ADD-ONS</h4>
<p>Add-ons are the lifeblood of XBMC. Most of them are easy installs—go to System &gt; Settings &gt; Add-ons &gt; Get Add-ons &gt; All Add-ons and select from any of the available categories to search through the official XBMC repository. Pick an add-on and click Install.</p>
<p>Some beta add-ons aren’t available without a bit of tinkering. We recommend NetfliXBMC, Spotimc, and the unofficial Hulu add-on to start with.</p>
<p>Installing NetfliXBMC is a bit of a chore. First, download AddOnScripterDE’s repository (<a href="https://code.google.com/p/addonscriptorde-beta-repo/downloads/list">http://bit.ly/NetfliXBMC</a>). Then go to Settings &gt; Add-ons &gt; Install from zip file and select the zip file you downloaded. Now when you click Get Add-ons, you should see AddOnScripterDE’s Beta Repo as an option. Select it, head into Video Add-ons, and install NetfliXBMC. Once it’s installed, right-click NetfliXBMC, go to Add-on settings (<strong>image D</strong>), and enter in your Netflix account information. While you’re in the settings menu, click the Advanced tab and select IExplorer under Win Browser. If you’ve done everything right, you should be able to access Netflix and watch videos.</p>
<p>The process is a bit simpler for BlueCop’s Hulu add-on and Spotimc. To get access to Hulu, download BlueCop’s repository (<a href="https://code.google.com/p/bluecop-xbmc-repo/downloads/detail?name=repository.bluecop.xbmc-plugins.zip">http://bit.ly/HuluXBMC</a>) and install it by selecting the repo. Spotimc (http://bit.ly/Spotimc), the unofficial Spotify add-on, is even easier to install. All you have to do is download and directly install the zip file.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/xbmc_4_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/xbmc_4_small.jpg" width="620" height="349" /></a></p>
<h4>5. INSTALL ADD-ONS</h4>
<p>XBMC looks fine the first time you start it up, but there’s more than a few alternate skins available. Go to System &gt; Settings &gt; Appearance &gt; Skin &gt; Get More to get access to them. We recommend Aeon Nox, Aeon MQ 5 (<strong>image E</strong>), and re-Touched if you’re running XBMC on a device with a touchscreen.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/xbmc_5_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/xbmc_5_small.jpg" width="620" height="349" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;</p>
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<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>How to Save on Software</h3>
<p><strong>Get cheap or free software without losing out</strong></p>
<h4>Antivirus</h4>
<p>Computer security is not an area where you want to cut corners, but these days you can get all of your antivirus needs covered without spending much at all. For many users, the days of shelling out big bucks for a yearly subscription AV suite are over—Microsoft provides formidable built-in protection in the form of Windows Defender, a powerful free antivirus program included in Windows 8.</p>
<p>If you’d like even more full-featured AV, or you want to stick with the antivirus suite you already know, the best way to save money is to buy through a reseller. A simple Amazon search for Kaspersky or Norton returns dozens of reputable sellers offering the latest versions of these suites for 50 percent off retail price.</p>
<h4>Image Editor</h4>
<p>Even if you don’t consider photography a hobby, you should know a little bit about photo editing. A quick pass through the right software can take even the most amateurish photos and give them a little extra pop. There’s plenty of ways to do this without spending money, depending on your needs.</p>
<p>If you just want to occasionally spruce up pictures with features like contrast and color adjustment, red-eye reduction, and cropping, you may not need to download anything at all. Popular photo organization tools Flickr (<a href="https://www.flickr.com/">www.flickr.com</a>) and Picasa (h<a href="http://picasa.google.com/">ttp://picasa.google.com</a>) both come with built-in tools that let you do all that for free.</p>
<p>For cheapskates that want the power of a full photo-editing suite for free, the answer is (as always) Gimp (www.gimp.org). The formidable open-source editor can do almost everything Photoshop can, including automatic image adjustments, batch processing, and manual photo correction. Finally, consider that Photoshop itself isn’t as expensive as it once was. Photoshop Elements (<a href="http://www.adobe.com/">www.adobe.com</a>) offers all the photo correction options a non-expert photographer needs with a very user-friendly interface for $60. Alternatively, Adobe’s new subscription options allow you to “rent” Photoshop by the month for $30.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="/files/u152332/windows_defender_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/windows_defender_small.jpg" alt="Windows Defender: The best thing to happen to security-minded cheapskates." width="620" height="354" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Windows Defender: The best thing to happen to security-minded cheapskates.</strong></p>
<h4>Office Apps</h4>
<p>Microsoft Office has a death grip on the commercial office apps market on Windows, but there are plenty of alternatives if you look around. If you’re able, the best solution for most folks is to simply move your documents cloud-side, with Google Apps (<a href="https://www.google.com/intl/en/drive/">https://drive.google.com</a>). The browser-based word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation software are all powerful and user-friendly, and you can access your files from any computer or smartphone.</p>
<p>If you prefer a more traditional software suite, the open-source alternative is Libre Office (<a href="http://www.libreoffice.org/">www.libreoffice.org</a>), a descendant of the popular Open Office. It’s a big download, but Libre Office has all the features of Microsoft Office, and can open and save files with the widely used Office file extensions.</p>
<h4>Operating System</h4>
<p>When it’s time to really make the switch to free software, you’ve got to start from the ground up—you’ve got to switch to a free operating system. The subject of making the switch to Linux is too broad to fit into a paragraph or two, but we’ll tell you how to get started. We recommend Mint, a very beginner-friendly Linux distro that’s based on Ubuntu. Ubuntu (<a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/">www.ubuntu.com</a>) is also a great choice, but the Mint GUI will be slightly more intuitive for people used to Windows. Head to <a href="http://www.linuxmint.com/">www.linuxmint.com</a> to download the latest version of the OS, and then click over to the Documentation tab. The guide is pretty long, but doesn’t involve anything that will be difficult for a moderately experienced computer user.</p>
<h4>Video Encoding/Playback</h4>
<p>When it comes to playing video content, the best free option is also the best option, period. Download VLC (<a href="http://www.videolan.org/">www.videolan.org</a>), a free media player that offers playback for just about any file type or codec under the sun. If you want to go a step further and transcode videos from one format to another, the software you’re looking for is HandBrake (<a href="http://handbrake.fr/">http://handbrake.fr</a>), a free utility that makes it easy to create video files perfectly suited for any device.</p>
<h3>Student, Government, and Company Discounts</h3>
<p>One thing to keep in mind when hunting for cheap software is that you might be able to get deeper discounts through your employer or school. If you work for the government or military, for instance, you could be eligible for a program that allows you to download Microsoft Office for just $10. If you work for a big company, you might be able to get bulk-priced software for home use, as well. We can’t say what any particular employer offers, of course, so your best bet is to get in contact with your IT department, and ask if they offer any discount programs for at-home use.</p>
<p>What’s the one group that companies love the most? Students. College students and kids are broke now, but could someday be valuable customers, so companies like Microsoft, Dell, and Apple try to earn their favor with discounts on just about everything. All versions of Windows and Office are 10 percent off for students, for instance, and Adobe offers a huge 40 percent educational discount on its pricey software. Hardware is also cheaper if you have an educational email address, with Apple and Dell offering substantial savings on laptops for students. The main takeaway here is that if you’re a student, never buy anything online without first searching to see if a discount is available.</p>
<p>Note that most educational discounts are also available to school faculty, so if you or someone in your family is a teacher you can cash in on these deals. Finally, college students should remember that universities are big organizations, too, and may have their own bulk-rate deals on software. Talk to your campus technology department for more info.</p>
<hr />
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Best Bang-for-the-Buck Games</h3>
<p><strong>These deals are so good it’s almost a crime to pass them up</strong></p>
<h4>Counter-Strike: Global Offensive</h4>
<p>CS:GO takes the challenge and balance of the original game and gives it a big face-lift and the most accessibility the franchise has ever seen. You can play it at a variety of skill levels and still have fun—even against some decent bots. The game will also randomly reward you with crates that contain cosmetic upgrades for your weapons and clothing. $15, <a href="http://blog.counter-strike.net/">www.counter-strike.net</a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/cheapskate__games_1_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/cheapskate__games_1_small.jpg" width="620" height="265" /></a></p>
<h4>Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director’s Cut</h4>
<p>This sci-fi stealth-action-RPG hybrid maintains the cynical tone, grand scale, and moral quandaries of the original game, while pushing forward with triple-A production values, including an excellent soundtrack by composer Michael McCann. With latitude for stealthy, guns-blazing, and completely non-lethal approaches, the game rewards multiple playthroughs. $20, <a href="http://www.deusex.com/">www.deusex.com</a></p>
<h4>Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate Edition</h4>
<p>Developed by some of the people who made the original Fallout games, FNV brings a meatier story and lighter tone than Fallout 3, and it moves us from the DC wasteland to the Southwestern desert. Combined with mods and story DLCs, you could easily lose a hundred hours to this game. $20, <a href="http://fallout.bethsoft.com/">fallout.bethsoft.com</a></p>
<h4>FTL: Faster than Light</h4>
<p>This top-down sci-fi rogue-like has you hurtling through dangerous stretches of unknown space as you evade a fleet of ships bent on eliminating the last remnants of a failed rebellion. Highly tactical and random, you increase your odds of survival through unlocking different ship types and gathering the right collection of crew and weaponry. A big free update may be out by the time you read this, too. $10, <a href="http://www.ftlgame.com/">www.ftlgame.com</a></p>
<h4>Gnomoria</h4>
<p>This sandbox village-management game is kinder, gentler Dwarf Fortress. Build your town into a city and defend it from enemies, craft a slew of items, explore your randomly generated surroundings, and be charmed by the 16-bit art style. This was still in “Early Access” mode at press time, so gameplay was still evolving. Your mileage may vary. $8, <a href="http://www.gnomoria.com/">www.gnomoria.com</a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/cheapskate_games_5_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/cheapskate_games_5_small.jpg" width="620" height="349" /></a></p>
<h4>Legend of Grimrock</h4>
<p>This first-person dungeon crawler hearkens back to old-school titles like Eye of the Beholder, but with updated graphics and sound. Lots of puzzles and secrets lay before you as you attempt to escape the prison that you have been unjustly thrown into. Steam provides Workshop support, and the community has put together hours of additional levels, enemies, and items. $15, <a href="http://www.grimrock.net/">www.grimrock.net</a></p>
<h4>Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine</h4>
<p>This top-down, team-based game is about breaking into banks, museums, and mansions. You can play alone or online and choose from a variety of character classes, like hacker, locksmith, or pickpocket. It’s received a couple of large, free updates and has Workshop support to greatly increase the amount of content. $15, <a href="http://www.monacoismine.com/">www.monacoismine.com</a></p>
<h4>Spelunky</h4>
<p>In this charming, side-scrolling indie platformer, death is permanent but usually educational and entertaining. Randomly generated levels, full destructibility, content unlocks, local co-op, and daily challenges await the patient and adventurous. It also has full gamepad support and performs well on older PCs. $15, <a href="http://www.spelunkyworld.com/">www.spelunkyworld.com</a></p>
<h3>How to Be a Frugal Fragger</h3>
<p>Humble Store In addition to weekly and semi-monthly bundle sales, the Humble Bundle guys now have a 24/7 storefront with daily deals. They reportedly take a smaller cut than Steam, and they frequently match Steam’s sale price, so it’s a good place to check before making your purchase. They still sell Steam keys, along with DRM-free downloads and sometimes Android versions. Ten percent of all proceeds go to charity. <a href="https://www.humblebundle.com/store">www.humblebundle.com/store</a></p>
<p>Cheapshark This is one of the better sale aggregators on the web, pulling prices from a dozen different reputable online stores. You can specify a price range and sort by multiple criteria, like release date, Metacritic score, and title, and you can sign up for price alerts, too. <a href="http://www.cheapshark.com/">www.cheapshark.com</a></p>
<p>GOG.com If you don’t want to deal with DRM, GOG.com is your new best friend. Its library of games also stretches back to the DOS days (Wing Commander, Master of Orion, Ultima Underworld), but they’re tuned to be playable out-of-the-box on a modern OS. GOG frequently bundles soundtracks, wallpaper, and artwork with each game. It is owned by CD Projekt Red, the makers of the Witcher games. <a href="http://www.gog.com/">www.gog.com</a></p>
<p>Amazon Amazon is another good place to check, because it frequently offer credits towards future game purchases, and you can get credit cards that award bonus points for shopping there (such as Amazon’s owned branded Visa card, which currently gives you a $30 credit if you’re approved). And with its buying power, you’ll sometimes find better sale prices than anywhere else. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/">www.amazon.com</a></p>
<p>Vendor Bundles Nvidia and AMD have been bundling a lot of games with their cards lately, but sometimes the buyer already owns them or just isn’t interested. This is where eBay comes in. Since the games came free of charge, resell prices are customarily lower than retail. <a href="http://www.ebay.com/">www.ebay.com</a></p>
http://www.maximumpc.com/cheap_PC_2014#commentsaffordablecheapcomputerdiscountfeaturefreeMarch issues 2014maximum pcrebatessalesSoftwareSoftwareFeaturesWed, 23 Jul 2014 21:41:51 +0000Maximum PC staff27999 at http://www.maximumpc.comMetal Gear Rising: Revengeancehttp://www.maximumpc.com/metal_gear_rising_revengeance_review_2014
<!--paging_filter--><h3>Crazy good fun, but also crazy</h3>
<p>As much as we initially disliked the over-the-top storyline, action, and gameplay of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, the more we played, the more we found ourselves growing quite fond of the game. It’s more like exercise than a bad wine; worth sticking with for the end results, rather than tossing out after the first sip or two.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/5_small_14.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/5_small_13.jpg" alt="I’d like two inches off the top, please." title="Metal Gear Rising" width="620" height="349" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>I’d like two inches off the top, please.</strong></p>
<p>We still don’t quite get what’s going on with the plot, and suspect that other Metal Gear newbies will approach this game with a bit of head scratching. As far as we can gather, your main character is (eventually) a cyborg-human hybrid that fights against other cyborg-human hybrids, plain ol’ humans, crazy giant killer robots, and all sorts of other screen-filling insanity.</p>
<p>It’s you versus the military-industrial complex of the future. And you get a robot dog. And you try to save children’s brains. And you can do it all in a mariachi costume, if you’re so inclined. We’re not making this up; you Metal Gear veterans know the drill.</p>
<p>If you’re curious about the “revengeance” bit—a made-up word, we’d like to note—the answer comes fairly quickly into the game’s prologue. Your tin-can-to-be, Raiden, is working as a bodyguard/toaster-for-hire. One wrong mission later, punctuated by an energy sword–like object going right into your face, and you’re a hacked-off cyborg fighting in the name of peace and happiness.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/3_small_27.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/3_small_26.jpg" alt="We’re not sure where Mistral, or you, keep that giant polearm." title="Metal Gear Rising" width="620" height="349" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>We’re not sure where Mistral,&nbsp; or you, keep that giant polearm.</strong></p>
<p>We sound a little tentative about the plot, we realize. It’s not our fault; it’s a bit of a trip. No matter what, though, you must resist the urge to skip the cutscenes, regardless of how silly they might feel sometimes (or how many there may be). The cinematics are as action-packed as they are beautiful (and gory), interspersed with the primary gameplay just enough to captivate lost gamers throughout the eight-chapter game.</p>
<p>The game-changing element of Revengeance—or at least, the new element that transforms the title from mere hack-‘n’-slash into a bit more of an art form—is the inclusion of a new “Blade” mode. Think The Matrix, but with a sword that can cut through just about anything (torsos, especially). Be more surgical with your Ginsu demonstration and you can gain upgrades for your character by cutting off the left hands (?!) of your cyborg foes. Get wilder, and you can rip out spines for more health and energy (slow-motion time), lop off legs, food-process your foes, et cetera.</p>
<p>The mechanic, while fun, does require a bit more precision than you might expect. You move your mouse around to set the exact angle for the chopping while simultaneously using the WASD keys to control Raiden’s targeting. Lining up your sword can be a pain in the butt, and it’s annoying to turn your target into a split banana when you thought you were perfectly aligned to simply take off an arm. A few hours of this and we were ready to trade in our keyboard and mouse for a controller. Or, better still, a simple Fallout 3–like targeting system.</p>
<p>Also irritating: The game ranks your fighting prowess after each chunk of combat and awards you points for how well/quickly/skillfully you unleashed the pain. You then use these points to buy new abilities, weapons, and stats boosts. We’re not fans of the rating system, as the game’s fairly frantic pacing makes fight-planning a bit annoying. The upgrade system is fine, but it, like the rest of the game, just expects that you’ll “figure things out” along the way. We’d love to have more tutorials for combos, purchased moves, and a better sense of what some of the upgrades actually mean for your character.</p>
<p>On top of that, Revengeance throws in a collectables system—something we didn’t realize until we were about three chapters in and stumbled across a weird object that we could pick up off the ground. Whoops. There’s also a strange “call your buddies” option, where you can chit-chat with the various members of your organization. We don’t really get the point, unless you want a bit more exposition (rather, a lot more exposition) of the game’s complicated plot.</p>
<p>Though it does sound a bit like Platinum Games bolts a ton of extras onto Revengeance, these elements are easily forgiven in the heat of the game’s frantic, button-mashing, stuff-cutting action. Even though we often felt as if we were eschewing strategy for a combination of running around and left-clicking as fast as we could, we actually did find ourselves warming up a little bit to the game’s intended techniques. One learns how to parry quite quickly when suffering defeat after agonizing defeat against the game’s harder-hitting baddies (and bosses).</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/1_small_44.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/1_small_43.jpg" alt="If you haven’t mastered the game’s parry system for avoiding pain, one of the early boss fights will teach you the error of your ways." title="Metal Gear Rising" width="620" height="349" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>If you haven’t mastered the game’s parry system for avoiding pain, one of the early boss fights will teach you the error of your ways</strong>.</p>
<p>A note on that: The game’s boss fights do feel a bit formulaic, in the sense that the frequent mishmash of cutscenes, quick-time events, and general pattern-like fighting diminishes some of the allure once you’ve figured out the secrets. You could say that for just about any video game, though; we just happened to particularly notice it here.</p>
<p>Revengeance isn’t so much strategic—even with the cardboard box sneaking around—as it is insane. That’s fine with us, especially since you get more upgrade points for killing everything in sight than you do for Assassin’s Creed–like trickery. You’re going to grumble with frustration when a boss the size of your screen pummels you into the ground for the eighth time in a row; you’re going to sigh at some of the exceedingly lame dialogue; and you’re going to wince when yet another limb/body/person explodes in a gory mess.</p>
<p>Above all else, though, you’re going to have fun. And given how replayable Revengeance is, you’re going to have fun squared.</p>
<p><strong>$30,</strong> <a href="http://www.konami.jp/mgr/">www.konami.jp/mgr</a><strong>, ESRB: M</strong></p>
http://www.maximumpc.com/metal_gear_rising_revengeance_review_2014#commentsapril issues 2014gamesmaximum pcMetal gear RevengeanceReviewSoftwareGamesReviewsWed, 23 Jul 2014 12:43:39 +0000David Murphy28219 at http://www.maximumpc.comThe Age of HSA (Heterogeneous System Architecture)http://www.maximumpc.com/hsa_2014
<!--paging_filter--><h3>(chorus) Heterogeneous System Architecture</h3>
<p>You’ll have to forgive us, but it’s hard not to think of AMD’s next-generation APU without breaking into a chorus of that classic New Age song: “Age of Aquarius.”</p>
<p>HSA does, after all, promise a brighter, sunshinier future for AMD’s vision of Heterogeneous System Architecture—just without the hippies with long hair and bell bottoms dancing around. In short, HSA is the next step that finally melds the CPU and the GPU together.</p>
<p>Sound impossible? AMD’s new “Kaveri” APU does just that, and to a level we've never seen before. But does this New Age APU really have what it takes to push off old-world designs from that Mad Men–dressed Intel? To find out, read on.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a><img src="/files/u152332/54125a_kaveri_chip_angled_pair_aseries_be_small.jpg" width="620" height="496" /></a></p>
<h3>Kaveri Arrives</h3>
<p><strong>Heterogeneous System Architecture Explained</strong></p>
<p>Let’s be up-front about this: Kaveri’s significance isn’t that it’s a super-high-end, tricked-out part that will rock everyone’s computing world. No. This part won’t and can’t compete with a $1,000 Core i7 Extreme CPU or even a $500 Core i7 chip. Or, for that matter, a $320 Core i7, either. In fact, the chip is a mild-mannered, midrange APU. If your eyes are glazed over already, don’t be quite so jaded. Kaveri is still a very significant milestone in AMD’s quest to see heterogeneous computing turn into a reality.</p>
<p>If you flip back a few years, AMD had just gone through a run of phenomenal successes with its Athlon, Athlon XP, and Athlon 64, which had put its mortal enemy back on its heels for the first time in both companies’ histories. That sleeping giant wouldn’t stay asleep at the wheel forever, though. Those who know current events know that Intel came back with a roaring success with its Core CPUs.</p>
<p>As a tiny chipmaker, and one without a fab of its own, AMD’s only real, true course was to use the one tool that Intel didn’t have: graphics performance. While Intel has long been known as the king of not-good graphics and has received an Academy Award nomination for graphics unimpressiveness, AMD’s GPU division hasn’t always been in first, but everyone acknowledges the company has some good parts.</p>
<h4>It’s not just old integrated graphics</h4>
<p>One thing you shouldn’t confuse AMD’s APUs with is the move to integrated graphics. Intel, in fact, combined a graphics core into the socket of its original LGA1156 CPUs before AMD, but that was just a GPU sitting inside the CPU package. The graphics core eventually was merged into the die itself, but the approach is far different than AMD’s APU philosophy. Ever since the Llano APU was introduced in 2011, AMD has slowly been trying to elevate the integrated GPU to the same status as the CPU. Llano featured a few special interfaces between the cores and memory, Richland unified the CPU and GPU’s north bridge, and Kaveri at last makes the GPU a full equal to the CPU.</p>
<h4>HUMA</h4>
<p>One of the biggest changes with Kaveri is the memory controller. With Richland, Llano, and other on-die or on-chip graphics parts, the CPU and GPU were still separate entities as far as the memory controller was concerned. In a Richland chip, for example, before the GPU could be tasked with working on something the CPU was processing, the information would have to be copied to the GPU’s memory before work could begin—even though it was already in memory. It’s a bit like two people working on a task simultaneously who must pass the materials over a wall before anything can happen. With Kaveri, both the CPU and GPU can access the same memory (up to 32GB) without the inefficiency of passing things back and forth first. Kaveri also features a queuing technique that lets either the GPU or CPU dispatch work loads. Thus, the GPU is finally getting top billing with the CPU rather than playing second fiddle.</p>
<p>Those aren’t the only changes AMD made to Kaveri. On the x86 side, AMD has tweaked the new “Steamroller” cores to reduce mispredicted branches by 20 percent, reduce cache misses by 30 percent, and made general scheduling efficiency increases of 5 to 10 percent, the company claims. All this adds up to, AMD says, a healthy increase in efficiency over its previous “Piledriver” microarchitecture from 10 to 20 percent.</p>
<p>The basic fundamentals of the chip from A10-6800K are still there, too: It’s a dual-core “module” with some shared resources. All three of the launch Kaveris feature two modules for a total of four cores. Of course, that gets into AMD’s new language for Kaveri about just what a core is. The company says the new Kaveri actually has 12 “compute cores.” Four of those are the CPU's, the other eight are the GPU cores. What’s a compute core? AMD defines them as an HSA hardware block that’s programmable and capable of running at least one process in its own context and virtual memory space, independently from other cores. Fortunately, AMD isn’t pushing this line too hard and selling it to the public as a 12-core processor, but at least it’s a somewhat defendable argument.</p>
<div class="module orange-module article-module">
<div class="module orange-module article-module"><span class="module-name">&nbsp;APU’s compared</span><br />
<div class="module-content">
<div class="module-text full">
<div class="spec-table orange">
<table style="width: 620px; height: 265px;" border="0">
<thead> </thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>&nbsp;Make/Model</td>
<td>A10-7850K</td>
<td>A10-6800K</td>
<td>A10-5800K</td>
<td>A8-3850</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="item">Code name</td>
<td class="item-dark">Kaveri</td>
<td>Richland</td>
<td>Trinity</td>
<td>Llano</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Microarchitecture</td>
<td>Steamroller</td>
<td>Enhanced Piledriver<br /><strong>&nbsp;</strong></td>
<td>Piledriver</td>
<td>K10</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="item">Core/Thread</td>
<td class="item-dark">4/4</td>
<td>4/4</td>
<td>4/4</td>
<td>4/4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Base/Turbo Clock</td>
<td>3.7/4</td>
<td>4.1/4.4</td>
<td>4.1/4.4</td>
<td>2.9/2.9</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Die Size</td>
<td>245mm2</td>
<td>246mm2<strong><br /></strong></td>
<td>246mm2</td>
<td>228mm2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Transistor Count</td>
<td>2.41 billion</td>
<td>1.303 billion</td>
<td>1.303 billion</td>
<td>1.178 billion</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Graphics</td>
<td>R7</td>
<td>HD 8670</td>
<td>HD 7660</td>
<td>HD6550D</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>L2 Cache</td>
<td>4MB</td>
<td>4MB</td>
<td>4MB</td>
<td>4MB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Process technology</td>
<td>28nm</td>
<td>32nm</td>
<td>32nm</td>
<td>32nm</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>TDP</td>
<td>95 watts</td>
<td>100 watts</td>
<td>100 watts</td>
<td>100 watts</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Price (at launch)</td>
<td>$173</td>
<td>$142</td>
<td>$122</td>
<td>$135</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h4>A new process that may not be better for CPUs</h4>
<p>Kaveri gets a die shrink, going from Richland's 32nm process to 28nm process. The chip is still being made by AMD’s former fab, Global Foundries, but there is a key difference. The 32nm process used a High-K Metal Gate Silicon On Insulator that’s less dense than the 28nm Super High Performance (SHP) process used in Kaveri. The 32nm SOI process is better suited for higher-clocked CPUs—witness the cherry-picked AMD FX-9590 parts that could hit 5GHz out of a retail box. The 28nm SHP process (that’s also used for GPUs) is denser but doesn’t scale in frequency as easily as the 32nm process. That’s apparent in these new parts, as the top-end 3.7GHz A10-7850K part Turbos up to 4GHz. In comparison, the older 32nm SOI-based A10-6800K had a base clock of 4.1GHz with a Turbo of 4.4GHz.</p>
<p>There will certainly be those who pooh-pooh such a decision, but the choice probably makes sense from AMD’s perspective—it has basically chosen a process technology that’s better suited to its core strength on the graphics cores rather than the CPU side.</p>
<h4>It’s dead, Jim</h4>
<p>One thing the move to 28nm may signal certainly won’t make AMD enthusiasts happy, though: The end of AM3+. There have been rumors swirling for months that the FX CPUs would be the final parts for the AM3+ socket. We’ll point out that AMD has neither confirmed nor denied AM3+ and FX as dead, but between the leaked roadmaps that go nowhere for the high end and the 28nm Steamroller process so focused on denser transistors that don’t favor building high-clocked CPUs, it doesn’t look good. It also doesn’t help that 2014 will be a transition year with DDR4 on the horizon. Does it make sense for AMD to really roll out a Steamroller using a process technology not optimized for pure CPUs that likely still won’t compete with Intel’s midrange parts, and then transition to DDR4? Painfully, we have to admit: no. Still, we really hope we’re wrong, as we’d love to see an 8-core or more Steamroller hit the AM3+ just for old times’ sake.</p>
<p>Don’t take that to mean AMD will abandon the high-end enthusiast altogether, though. It just may be time for AMD to shed AM3+, and even those who have ridden the socket from AM2 till now really can’t complain too much—the company should be patted on the back for providing a fairly smooth road over the years.</p>
<div class="module orange-module article-module">
<div class="module orange-module article-module"><span class="module-name">AMD’s new Kaveri Lineup</span><br />
<div class="module-content">
<div class="module-text full">
<div class="spec-table orange">
<table style="width: 620px; height: 265px;" border="0">
<thead> </thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Make/Model</td>
<td>A10-7850K</td>
<td>A10-7700K</td>
<td>A8-7600</td>
<td>A8-7600</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="item">CPU Cores/GPU Cores</td>
<td class="item-dark">4/8</td>
<td>4/6</td>
<td>4/6</td>
<td>4/6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>CPU Base/Turbo Clock</td>
<td>3.7/4</td>
<td>3.4/3.8<br /><strong>&nbsp;</strong></td>
<td>3.3/3.8</td>
<td>3.1/3.3</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="item">TDP</td>
<td class="item-dark">95 watts</td>
<td>95 watts</td>
<td>65 watts</td>
<td>45 watts</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>L2 Cache</td>
<td>4MB</td>
<td>4MB</td>
<td>4MB</td>
<td>4MB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Graphics</td>
<td>R7</td>
<td>R7</td>
<td>R7</td>
<td>R7</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Shader Cores</td>
<td>512</td>
<td>384</td>
<td>384</td>
<td>384</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Graphics Clock</td>
<td>Up to 720MHz</td>
<td>Up to 720MHz</td>
<td>Up to 720MHz</td>
<td>Up to 720MHz</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Price</td>
<td>$173</td>
<td>$152</td>
<td>$119</td>
<td>$119</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3>Socket to Me</h3>
<p><strong>FM1</strong></p>
<p>The original Socket FM1 was released alongside AMD’s Llano APUs. We’ve lauded AMD over the years for socket stability, but not on FM1. Socket FM1 lived about a year and was made obsolete by Socket FM2. The worst part of it was the confusion on what worked with which part. To this day, we still have to look it up.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/fm1_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/fm1_small.jpg" width="620" height="516" /></a></p>
<p><strong>FM2</strong></p>
<p>FM2 has been the modern APU socket we’ve grown accustomed to over the last year or so. It works with all A-series parts 5000 and greater, and even a few oddball Athlon II X4 parts, too. AMD is trying to wreck its legacy of socket support, though, by making Kaveri incompatible with existing FM2 boards. Fooey.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/fm2_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/fm2_small.jpg" width="620" height="521" /></a></p>
<p><strong>FM2+</strong></p>
<p>Kaveri has a slightly different pin configuration than Richland and Trinity, and thus FM2+, or FM2b, was born. The good news is FM2+ boards will work with older A-series APUs 5000 or greater. The bad news is Kaveri won’t fit into your existing FM2 motherboard.</p>
<h3>But wait, there’s more</h3>
<p><strong>Mantle, TrueAudio get thrown in for free!</strong></p>
<p>Besides a new process, microarchitecture, and uniform memory access, Kaveri also brings AMD’s GCN graphics cores to the table. It’s not just about the graphics cores, though, AMD has also wisely decided to bring AMD TrueAudio technology to the table. True-<br />Audio promises very advanced audio processing using the power of the graphics compute cores on hand. Kaveri will also benefit from AMD’s new Mantle support. Mantle is AMD’s new API that’s designed to sidestep limitations in DirectX and promises insane performance increases. Interestingly, Mantle’s main benefit may not be Dream Machine–level exotic rigs with overclocked hexa-cores. Instead, Mantle looks to benefit those with far more modest CPUs. You know, such as an A10-7850K. Using the Mantle API, a Core i7-4960X with a Radeon R9 290X would see a modest 1.4 percent improvement at 2560x1600, but that same GPU paired with a lower-end A10-7700K would see an astounding 40.1 percent buff using Mantle, AMD claims.</p>
<p>Earlier, we said it was wise of AMD to include Mantle and True-Audio in Kaveri. We believe it was a smart decision because the company needs to get more chips on the ground that support Mantle and TrueAudio for either to gain any real traction. Putting it into the very affordable Kaveri accomplishes that. The last piece, which is the icing on the cake, is the ability to run the graphics cores to mine crypto-currency. How much you can make varies on what you’re mining, how much power you’re paying for, and the market value, but one crazy figure AMD officials threw out there was a Kaveri APU could potentially generate $704 yearly in crypto-currency (or more, and also less, too).</p>
<h3>The Evolution of apus</h3>
<p><strong>Llano</strong></p>
<p>The original Llano APU used the same basic K10 cores as Phenom II CPUs. Though it didn’t come out until 2011, AMD had been working on the Llano concept since 2006—soon after its purchase of ATI. Rather than the dual-core modules, Llano used four distinct CPU cores alongside the Radeon HD 6000–class graphics.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/llano_small_2.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/llano_small_1.jpg" title="Llano" width="620" height="737" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Trinity</strong></p>
<p>The second-gen APU used AMD’s newer Piledriver dual-module cores, added a Turbo Core mode, and faster Radeon HD 7000–class graphics. A second iteration of the Piledriver APU was called Richland and added mostly power and clock improvements.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/trinity_small_0.png"><img src="/files/u152332/trinity_small.png" title="Trinity" width="500" height="679" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Kaveri</strong></p>
<p>Kaveri breaks from previous APUs by allowing both CPU and GPU cores to use the same memory without having to copy the data back and forth. The newest APU also bring R7-class graphics to the mix.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/kaveri_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/kaveri_small.jpg" title="Kaveri" width="620" height="523" /></a></p>
<h3>How we tested</h3>
<p>Kaveri comes in three flavors but we think the most interesting of the bunch is the Cindy Brady model: the A8-7600 part. While the high-end APU sounds enticing, at $173 it’s pretty close to a quad-core Haswell chip. And yeah, no one cares about Jan. Far more palatable is the A8-7600. For $119, the A8-7600 does what AMD does best: compete on price. The A8-7600 is also unique among the Kaveris because you can easily set the CPU via BIOS to run at either a 45 watt TDP or at 65 watt TDP. At 65 watts, the base is 3.3GHz with a Turbo of 3.8GHz, and at 45 watts the base is 3.1GHz with a mild Turbo of 3.3GHz. We tested ours at 65 watts.</p>
<p>The A8-7600 went into an Asrock FM2A88X-ITX+ mobo running a Samsung 840 SSD. Before we get into test results, we’d like to point out a sleight of hand AMD performed this time around with the benchmarks it showed off to the public. The AMD part shows benchmarks using 16GB of DDR3/2133 and the Intel system using 16GB of DDR3/1600. That’s not fair. For our testing, we outfitted our Intel chips with dual-channel DDR3/1866 of G-skill RAM. We also obtained a pair of DDR3/2133 SO-DIMMs from G-skill, but the density was a bit lower at 8GB total. In the end, we tested all of our Intel parts using 16GB of DDR3/1866 and also tested the Kaveri at DDR3/2133 and DDR3/1866. Our testing shows that if you have Kaveri, it’s probably worth paying for DDR3/2133.</p>
<p>All of our Intel testing was done using an Asrock Z87-M8 mother-board. It’s also a Mini-ITX board but uses SO-DIMMs rather than DIMMs, hence the problem with getting 16GB of DDR3/2133. Our Intel box was outfitted with a Corsair Neutron SSD. Both platforms were loaded with a clean install of Windows 8.1, the boards flashed with the latest BIOS, and integrated graphics was used all around. For our Intel contestants we reached for a 3.4GHz Core i3-4130, which sells for $117. We also threw in a 3GHz Core i5-4430 part, the cheapest quad-core Haswell at $182; we include it only as a point of reference.</p>
<p>In choosing our benchmarks, we grabbed a subset of our typical CPU tests and threw in GPU compute and gaming workloads to give the integrated graphics a decent workout. We also added in an HSA JPEG decompression demo that AMD provided. Yes, we’ll say that again—AMD provided it, so stop your belly-aching, Intel fanboys. We wanted to put it into the mix to see how the new Kaveri would do when something was made to exploit the capabilities of HSA.</p>
<h4>The Result</h4>
<p>In many ways, not much has changed. Clock for clock, core for core, the AMD parts don’t equal their modern Intel competitors when it comes to today’s applications. The quad-core Core i5-4430 has a steep advantage over the AMD quad-core A8-7600 in multi-threaded tasks. This shouldn’t be news to anyone, as AMD’s current CPUs and APUs use dual-chip modules that share resources. Although the instructions per clock (IPC) is better than before, it’s not enough to bridge the gap with an Intel part. Yeah, we know. You’re thinking “who cares, that’s a $182 CPU against a $119 CPU.” We’d agree. Well, until you look at many of the benchmarks from the dual-core Core i3-4130 part. Thanks to its Hyper-Threading and better core efficiency, it’s damn near a tie with the AMD part even with its four physical, albeit shared, internal cores.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/screenshot_small_3.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/screenshot_small_2.jpg" width="620" height="349" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>AMD’s JPEG decompression demo is built to show off the advantages of Kaveri’s GPU and CPU to access the same memory.</strong></p>
<p>In the X264 HD 5.01 encoding test, for example, the dual-core Core i3 does a good job keeping up and even passing the A8-7600. Remember, this is two cores against four cores. While Kaveri does OK with encoding, Haswell will generally be well ahead. We also ran through the new PCMark V2 test, which now features OpenCL support. The results weren’t too surprising: When set to load up the GPU, the AMD part won; when run in conventional (aka CPU) mode, the Intel part jumped in front. As part of our testing, we also threw in some older tests, such as Valve’s Particle Test. This primarily tests how a chip will handle theoretical game physics. More threads and more cores are better, and the Intel part was clearly the winner. The Core i3 also aces the AMD chip in Cinebench 11.5, which is a 3D rendering test. Again, we’re talking about a dual-core vs. AMD’s quad-core part, but maybe that old way of thinking is about as antiquated as judging CPUs based on clock speed. We don’t, for example, compare a 3GHz Core i5 to a 3.4GHz A10 chip and automatically assume the A10 part is faster. Looked at that way, the A6-7600 does OK. In purely CPU tasks such as 7-Zip for file compression and TrueCrypt for encryption, both parts are dead even. For AMD CPUs, that’s really not bad.</p>
<p>Fortunately, the AMD part gets payback where you’d expect: graphics. The A8-7600 offers significant performance boosts over the Intel HD4400 and HD4600 in the quad-core Intel Haswell chip. In Firestrike, the graphics boost is almost double that of the Intel dual-core. Tomb Raider also favored the AMD part. You could almost play Tomb Raider (with enough graphics tweaks) at a reasonable frame rate, too. In GPU compute, the Kaveri also represents well, generally acing the dual-core Haswell. In the one HSA test we ran, Kaveri showed a healthy performance boost over the Intel parts—in line with the promises of HSA, if you believe them.</p>
<p>We can’t say all this without some caveats, though. The first is that when we pushed the GPU compute workloads from the graphics cores to the CPU cores, the AMD did pretty poorly. AMD’s argument, however, is that the future is about GPU computing and HSA. Even if Intel’s next-generation chip hits it out of the ballpark, the improvement isn’t going to be more than maybe 25 percent, the company would argue. But by moving the same workload to the GPU, it’s possible see performance gains of several magnitudes. That’s the sales pitch, anyway, and though it sounds good, we know that hanging performance on developer support is a very long fight. Anyone hoping that native HSA apps will be a game-changer should burst that bubble now—it’ll be years, if ever, before that happens. Think back to when Intel introduced the Pentium 4: Remember the huge stink around porting existing code to the new chip? As hard as Intel tried, it could never overcome the huge library of legacy applications that performed from bleak to mediocre on the P4. The lesson the company learned was that you can’t “recompile the world.”</p>
<p>The other issue with Kaveri is that it’s main advantage is in graphics. Once you plug in even a $100 GPU, you neutralize the value of the APU but you’re still stuck with the meh performance of the AMD compute cores. Fortunately, Kaveri is generally acceptable, but the power of those Haswell core’s can’t be ignored—Kaveri’s four cores just about equal two Haswell cores.</p>
<h4>The Upshot</h4>
<p>Kaveri’s role is perfect in a box that is unlikely to ever see a real discrete graphics card, such as an ultra-budget rig or a NUC-style machine. That’s the cheapest Kaveri, though. Once you get into the $150 and $175 range, you’re fighting with the faster quad-core Haswell parts, and we’d temper our verdict with those matchups. The A8-7600 is in a very nice spot, though. It’s far faster than its Intel contemporary in graphics, and generally “just good enough” on x86 performance so people aren’t likely to care too much. We’d honestly have to call that a victory.</p>
<div class="module orange-module article-module">
<div class="module orange-module article-module"><span class="module-name">Benchmarks</span><br />
<div class="module-content">
<div class="module-text full">
<div class="spec-table orange">
<table style="width: 620px; height: 265px;" border="0">
<thead> </thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>&nbsp;CPU</td>
<td>A8-7600</td>
<td>Core i3-4130</td>
<td>A8-7600<br />(for reference only)</td>
<td>Core i5-4430<br />(for reference only)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="item">Graphics</td>
<td class="item-dark">R7</td>
<td>HD4400</td>
<td>R7</td>
<td>HD4600</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Clock</td>
<td>3.3GHz/3.8GHz</td>
<td>3.4GHz</td>
<td>3.3GHz/3.8GHz</td>
<td>3GHz/3.2GHz</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="item">RAM Clock</td>
<td class="item-dark">DDR3/1866</td>
<td>DDR3/1866</td>
<td>DDR3/1866</td>
<td>DDR3/1866</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Price</td>
<td>$119</td>
<td>$117</td>
<td>$119</td>
<td>$182</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>X264 HD 5.01 Pass 1 (fps)</td>
<td>34.2</td>
<td><strong>39.5</strong></td>
<td>34.6</td>
<td>50.4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>X264 HD 5.01 Pass 2 (fps)</td>
<td><strong>8<br /></strong></td>
<td>7.62</td>
<td>8</td>
<td>11.6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>PCMark 8 V2 Home Accelerated</td>
<td><strong>3,102</strong></td>
<td>2,864</td>
<td>3,164</td>
<td>2,883</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>PCMark 8 V2 Home Conventional</td>
<td>2,502</td>
<td><strong>2,863</strong></td>
<td>3,422</td>
<td>2,880</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Valve Particle Benchmark (fps)</td>
<td>82</td>
<td><strong>101</strong></td>
<td>82</td>
<td>126</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Cinebench 11.5</td>
<td>3.36</td>
<td><strong>3.68</strong></td>
<td>3.4</td>
<td>5.06</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>TrueCrypt 7.1a (GB/s)</td>
<td><strong>2.1</strong></td>
<td>2</td>
<td>2.1</td>
<td>2.5</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>7-Zip 9.20 (mips)</td>
<td><strong>10,499</strong></td>
<td>10,423</td>
<td>10,888</td>
<td>14,046</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>JPEG Decoder CPU (sec)</td>
<td>12.14</td>
<td><strong>9.46</strong></td>
<td>11.62</td>
<td>10.04</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>JPEG Decoder GPU (sec)</td>
<td>6.06</td>
<td>N/A</td>
<td>5.63</td>
<td>N/A</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Basemark CL 1.1 GPU</td>
<td><strong>64.2</strong></td>
<td>35.8</td>
<td>66.5</td>
<td>44.4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Basemark CL 1.1 CPU</td>
<td>2.66</td>
<td><strong>8.7</strong></td>
<td>2.7</td>
<td>11.8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>LuxMark 2.0 Room GPU</td>
<td><strong>220</strong></td>
<td>177</td>
<td>230</td>
<td>176</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>LuxMark 2.0 Room CPU</td>
<td>72</td>
<td><strong>165</strong></td>
<td>119</td>
<td>328</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Tomb Raider Norm 19x10 (fps)</td>
<td><strong>26.1</strong></td>
<td>16.1</td>
<td>28.2</td>
<td>19.7</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Tomb Raider Low 19x10 (fps)</td>
<td><strong>36.7</strong></td>
<td>23.4</td>
<td>40.8</td>
<td>31.1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Tomb Raider Norm 16x10 (fps)</td>
<td><strong>30</strong></td>
<td>18.6</td>
<td>32.4</td>
<td>22.3</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Metro: 2033 12x7 (fps)</td>
<td><strong>39.33</strong></td>
<td>18.3</td>
<td>43.95</td>
<td>31.67</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Hitman 12x7 (fps)</td>
<td><strong>33.1</strong></td>
<td>25.1</td>
<td>36.1</td>
<td>27.8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>3DMark Ice Storm</td>
<td><strong>57,581</strong></td>
<td>44,008</td>
<td>59,761</td>
<td>51,177</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>3DMark Ice Storm Graphics</td>
<td><strong>71,752</strong></td>
<td>44,844</td>
<td>76,442</td>
<td>52,722</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>3DMark Ice Storm Physics</td>
<td>34,048</td>
<td><strong>41,315</strong></td>
<td>33,854</td>
<td>46,417</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>3DMark Cloud Gate</td>
<td><strong>6,141</strong></td>
<td>5,074</td>
<td>6,335</td>
<td>6,191</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>3DMark Cloud Gate Graphics</td>
<td><strong>8,925</strong></td>
<td>5,819</td>
<td>9,464</td>
<td>7,099</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>3DMark Cloud Gate Physics</td>
<td>2,936</td>
<td><strong>3,504</strong></td>
<td>3,504</td>
<td>4,277</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>3DMark Fire Strike</td>
<td><strong>1,265</strong></td>
<td>661</td>
<td>1,325</td>
<td>774</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>3DMark Fire Strike Graphics</td>
<td><strong>1,370</strong></td>
<td>715</td>
<td>1,434</td>
<td>848</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>3DMark Fire Strike Physics</td>
<td>4,210</td>
<td><strong>5,028</strong></td>
<td>4,200</td>
<td>5,869</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><em>Best scores are bolded. Windows 8.1 and integrated graphics were used for all testing.<br /></em></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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http://www.maximumpc.com/hsa_2014#commentsamdapril issues 2014apufeatureHardwareHeterogeneous System ArchitectureHSAkaverimaximum pcSoftwareFeaturesMon, 14 Jul 2014 08:55:06 +0000Gordon Mah Ung28157 at http://www.maximumpc.comThe Walking Dead: Season Two Reviewhttp://www.maximumpc.com/walking_dead_season_two_review_2014
<!--paging_filter--><h3>We would have befriended the cat instead</h3>
<p>We reason there are a number of you who have heard of The Walking Dead, but have never gotten a chance to exercise your mouse fingers in this quasi-game. This has led us to wonder: Is the second season of Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead compelling enough to make one go through the entire series up until this point? Could you even jump back in if you had a peek at Season One but never quite got around to finishing it?</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/1_small_38.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/1_small_37.jpg" alt="Heavy Rain, it’s not, but The Walking Dead: Season Two does incorporate a few gesture-based actions." title="The Walking Dead" width="620" height="349" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Heavy Rain, it’s not, but The Walking Dead: Season Two does incorporate a few gesture-based actions.</strong></p>
<p>We’ll make this decision easy: Yes, you should buy the second season of The Walking Dead.</p>
<p>If the thought of investing roughly 13–15 hours or so to catch up in Season One doesn’t sound all that appealing, Telltale has you covered. Since the game is based on choices, Season Two can automatically import the key decisions you made in the game’s previous season. Even if you only finished a chapter, your decisions can have an impact on your Season Two life—anything you didn’t get to in the first season is automatically randomized by the game for you.</p>
<p>That said, it’s important to realize that The Walking Dead is good at giving players the illusion of choice. For example, you’re going to get attacked by a dog in All That Remains no matter how you interact with the beast. It’s rare that your actions will have a significant, Choose Your Own Adventure–like major impact on your future. You’ll still go through the same overall plot, it’s just some of the details might vary based on your actions.</p>
<p>A word about that: We love the game’s interactive storytelling, and there’s no doubt that it does force you to make some fairly emotional choices. We even found ourselves empathizing in different ways and varying our character’s mood depending on how an NPC was treating us. Still, the general pacing within these episodes feels a bit formulaic: You have a larger exploration section where you click a lot of stuff or talk to a lot of people, typically followed by a dangerous scenario that requires a reflexes-or-death reaction, followed by a larger “pick one of two big things that happen” section. Wash, rinse, repeat.</p>
<p>Your character, Clementine, struggles to survive in a zombie-infested world—a gripping, gritty narrative featuring a great balance of quick-timing interactive elements and passive (albeit simplistic) exploration. The action bits feel more vivid and natural in Season Two, and we want to kiss the designer who thought it best that the interactive clues you point-and-click on disappear once you’ve performed the action (they persist in Season One, leading to much description repetition).</p>
<p>The Walking Dead is more of a sitcom than a game (humorously enough, given the game’s roots can be found in a TV series). What it lacks in clickable depth, it more than makes up for in story and narrative delivery. The Walking Dead isn’t very complex; you can guess how the story will be told, but the game’s twists—dictated in part by you, the player—keep it fresh and engaging.</p>
<p>Astute Maximum PC readers will note that we have yet to devote a paragraph to The Walking Dead’s plot, unlike the style of most of our game reviews. It’s not just because you control many elements of the story—no, you owe it to yourself to enjoy this survival adventure to the spoiler-free fullest, however you decide to do it.</p>
<p>$25, <a href="http://www.telltalegames.com/">www.telltalegames.com</a></p>
http://www.maximumpc.com/walking_dead_season_two_review_2014#commentsMarch issues 2014maximum pcReviewseason 2walking deadSoftwareGamesReviewsTue, 10 Jun 2014 09:03:18 +0000David Murphy27972 at http://www.maximumpc.comThe Upgrade to Windows 8.1 Guidehttp://www.maximumpc.com/windows_81_guide_2014
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<h3>To all the Windows 8 haters out there, we feel your pain! The update might be too little, too late for some, but if you're ready to accept a Win 8.1 fate, our guide will get you started</h3>
<p>Sometimes we wonder if Microsoft didn’t actually build a new OS so much as a Frankenstein that its customers could direct years of pent up anger, frustration, and fear onto. For example, just hint that Windows 8.0 ain’t that bad on the Internet, and some Windows users will react as if you keyed their mint ’64 Chevelle Malibu and kicked their dog with your steel-toed boot. To say you’ll get a beat down of YouTube-able proportions is an understatement of people’s rage at Windows 8.0 today.</p>
<p>It’s this gale-force headwind that Microsoft is flying into with its first major update to the much-maligned OS, which some blame for the record declines in PC sales. Dubbed Windows 8.1, this point release promises to address some of the major concerns people have with Windows 8.0 and even reintroduce the familiar Start button. But does it? Can this simple point release calm the seething masses?</p>
<p>Maybe and maybe not. If anything, it might actually make some people even angrier. Windows 8.1 brings back the Start button, yes, but it turns out it wasn’t just the Start button we wanted, but the Start Menu that came with it. The process to even get the update and who exactly gets it and the work-arounds isn’t going to make too many friends, either. In the past, major updates could be downloaded and installed on all of your machines en masse with little effort. Not so this time. Just getting the update on Windows 8.0 requires following a flow chart and throwing chicken bones across the top of your chassis.</p>
<p>Yes, we know you’re skeptical, distrustful, and even a little pissed off, but to find out the full skinny on what you need to do to get Windows 8.1 and whether it’s even worth the hassle, and how to make the most of it should you decide to take the plunge, you’ll need to read the whole story.</p>
<h3>Installation Issues</h3>
<p><strong>Updating to Win8.1: easy for some, a real PITA for others</strong></p>
<p>Windows 8.1 is no mere Service Pack. No, it’s a whole tenth better than Windows 8.0, thus the point-release designation by Microsoft. Therein lies most of the problems with even getting Windows 8.1. People expect it to be as easy and painless as a Service Pack, but it ain’t. For the vast majority of folks, it just works, but that’s no consolation to those of us who hit snags. Here are the possible issues you could encounter. (Note: We highly recommended that you run a backup before you install the upgrade, as going back isn’t always easy).</p>
<h4>Who Qualifies for the Upgrade?</h4>
<p>Anyone who is currently running Windows 8.0 or the Windows 8.1 Preview is eligible for the upgrade. If you were waiting for the notification to pop up in Windows Update that Windows 8.1 is ready for download, stop. In its infinite wisdom, Microsoft has decided that despite intense hatred by many of the Modern interface, that’s the only place you can get the Windows 8.1 update, in the Windows Store. Even more confusing, this won’t work for everyone. Those running the Enterprise version of Windows 8 or Win8 Pro using a volume license, MSDN, MAK, or TechNet key will not be able to grab the update in this manner. Instead, Microsoft is recommending that those with VLK versions download the ISO from MSDN or TechNet and perform an in-place upgrade. Enterprise users are recommended to just talk to their sys admin about how to update. Not sure what you’re running? Just hit Windows R and type slmgr.vbs –dli and Windows will identify your version.</p>
<h4>No 64-bit for You!</h4>
<p>Microsoft has included the requirement that the 64-bit version of Windows 8.1 support the CMPXCHG16b instruction. This won’t cause problems for anyone with a modern CPU, but if you’re using one of those earlier CPUs that had 64-bit support but not an explicit CMPXCHG16b instruction, you’re screwed. According to formerly in-print PCWorld.com, the affected chips include Athlon 64 X2 parts, Opteron 185, and other “vintage” 64-bit processors. Sometimes, it’s not even just the CPU, as reports indicate that the Core 2 Quad, which apparently supports the instruction, is stopped by the error because the P35 chipset doesn’t support it. The “fix” is to run 32-bit, or not run the upgrade. There is also a reported work-around but it’s no fun to execute and would take a page just to describe. Poo.</p>
<h4>I Don’t See No Stinkin’ Upgrade</h4>
<p>Getting the upgrade should be simple, except it’s not. First, as we said, you can only get it through the Windows Store from within the Modern UI. Second, well, sometimes it still won’t show up. Why not? You need to have all of the previous updates installed first. You may also need to reset the Windows Store. You can do this by swiping in from the right, touching the magnifying glass icon, and… oh hell, forget that. Just start a command prompt by hitting Windows Key + R and typing wsreset.exe. Now reboot. Go back into the Store and the update should be displayed prominently. Still not getting it? It’s possible that your Windows 8 is a version that doesn’t qualify—meaning it’s an Enterprise or Professional version using a product key from MSDN, TechNet, or a volume license. Unfortunately, your only answer may be an in-place upgrade (if you’re lucky) or nuking from orbit.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/upgrade_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/upgrade_small.jpg" alt="The Windows 8.1 upgrade can only be found in the Windows Store, and only after all Win 8.0 updates are applied." width="620" height="502" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>The Windows 8.1 upgrade can only be found in the Windows Store, and only after all Win 8.0 updates are applied.</strong></p>
<h4>Updating from the Preview Version</h4>
<p>If you installed the preview version of Windows 8.1 and are still using it, your trial license is about to expire. After January 2014, you have to activate with a retail product key. You'll still need to download the final version of the OS, too. Thankfully, you can get that update from the Windows Store, just as if you were upgrading from a retail copy of Windows 8.0. The store is the green-and-white "shopping bag" icon on the Start screen, which you access by pressing the Windows key on your keyboard.</p>
<p>If you made a "clean install" of the preview version from ISO media, where you use a DVD or USB key to completely replace the current operating system instead of upgrading from it (or you installed onto a blank hard drive), you too can use the Windows Store to upgrade to version 8.1.</p>
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<h4>Start Menus and Microsoft Accounts</h4>
<p>Since Windows 8 no longer comes with a Start menu, a cottage industry has emerged to fill the gap. Windows 8.1 has a Start button, but no new functionality is present. Our third-party Start menu, Start Menu 8 (free, <a href="http://www.iobit.com/">www.iobit.com</a>), had no issues with our updating to Windows 8.1. Microsoft's new Start button just never appeared.</p>
<p>The trickier issue is Microsoft accounts. By default, Windows 8.1 does not invite you to create a standard local account during the installation phase, which stores your credentials on your computer like usual, rather than on Microsoft's server in the "cloud." Instead, the company wants you to sign into a pre-existing account for services like Hotmail or Outlook.com, or create a new one inside this networked ecosystem. To get around this installation step, click Create Account instead of entering your Outlook.com or Hotmail login. Then, at the bottom of the next page, click "Continue using my existing account." If you are installing 8.1 from scratch, you will have the option to create a new local account instead.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="/files/u152332/microsoft_account_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/microsoft_account.jpg" width="620" height="435" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;<strong>Win 8.1 will prompt you to create a Microsoft account, but you can bypass that in favor of a local login.</strong></p>
<p>An MS account isn't bad news or anything. It allows you to use SkyDrive to sync your apps and settings across different PCs. It will let you consolidate Facebook, Twitter, Outlook, and LinkedIn feeds into the People app. It makes Hotmail and Outlook.com integration smoother. And you need it to get and update apps from the App Store, anyway. (You don't have to worry about not being able to log in if you're offline, because Windows itself will "remember" the last correct password you entered.) You can also switch your PC from an MS account to a local account later on.</p>
<h4>Updating Multiple PCs to 8.1</h4>
<p>If you have a small business or a household with a bunch of Windows 8.0 machines, downloading the 8.1 update for each PC could take a lot of time and bandwidth, since each download is basically the entire OS. But we know a trick to convert this download into an ISO, which you can then put on a DVD or USB flash drive, so that you only need to download it once. Be advised, however, that this only apparently works if you are running a retail version of Windows 8.0—the downloader rejected the OEM keys we tried as well as the “generic keys” floating around the Internets.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/creatingiso_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/creatingiso_small.jpg" alt="You can download a full ISO of Windows 8.1 to perform an in-place upgrade or even clean installs, sorta." width="620" height="459" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>You can download a full ISO of Windows 8.1 to perform an in-place upgrade or even clean installs, sorta.</strong></p>
<p>Pick any of your Windows 8.0 PCs and navigate to this Microsoft site: <a href="http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/upgrade-product-key-only">http://bit.ly/SCANcl</a>. Have your product key ready. Click the "Install Windows 8.1" button. Choose "Install by creating media," click Next, select ISO File, and click Next again. Choose the destination folder of the download, and click Next. The program will now download the Windows 8.1 update and create an ISO for it. Then it will ask if you want to burn the ISO to a DVD right now. You do have the option to create a bootable USB stick, but the general consensus is to just save the ISO instead, as you can always create a bootable USB stick version later on using the Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool: <a href="http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/html/pbPage.Help_Win7_usbdvd_dwnTool">http://bit.ly/162L74X</a>. Using this disc, you’re still limited to an in-place upgrade only—not a service-pack-like upgrade.</p>
<h4>Activating a Windows 8.1 ISO with an 8.0 Key</h4>
<p>You may have been told that you can't install Windows 8.1 from scratch and use a Windows 8.0 key. However, you can use a "generic" key designed for testing. The “generic” keys we refer to are those floating around the Internets—if you Bing “generic Windows 8.1 key” it shouldn’t take too long to find. Using the generic key, you will be able to eval Windows 8.1 for 120 days. Once you’ve entered in the correct generic key for your version of Windows (either Core or Pro) you can now activate it with your original, licensed Windows 8.0 key.</p>
<p>Once you've completed installation using one of these keys, open Windows Explorer (it's the folder icon in your taskbar), right-click This PC, select Properties, and click the link at the bottom-right that says Activate Windows. Then click the first Enter Key button and enter your Windows 8.0 retail key. Your copy of Windows 8.1 is now officially installed.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/changing_product_key_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/changing_product_key_small.jpg" alt="You can download a full ISO of Windows 8.1 to perform an in-place upgrade or even clean installs, sorta." width="620" height="388" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Windows 8.1 introduces a visual upgrade to the method for changing your product key.</strong></p>
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<h3>Customization</h3>
<p><strong>The essential first steps to making Win 8.1 desktop-worthy</strong></p>
<p>Like candy? Then you’ll love Windows 8.1, because the improvements Microsoft has made in its first major iterative update to the Windows 8 operating system include a ton of eye-candy tweaks that should make your experience within the operating system prettier, at least—and in some cases, a bit more user-friendly!</p>
<p>No, you still don’t get a “real” Start button and, no, you can’t ditch the Modern UI for good without a third-party program. We’ll consider Microsoft’s tweaks to be but baby steps on the grand evolution of its Windows 8 ecosystem, one that hopefully comes with even more happy desktop/Modern UI integration for those still displeased by the touch-themed tidbits of Microsoft’s latest OS.</p>
<h4>Boot to Desktop</h4>
<p>One of the most frustrating elements of Windows 8 is its inability to boot directly to the classic Windows desktop, instead dumping users onto the Start screen with each and every flick of the power switch. Thankfully, Windows 8.1 gives you a bit more freedom in that regard.</p>
<p>To boot to Desktop mode instead of the Start screen, hit up your desktop, right-click your taskbar, and select Properties. Click the Navigation tab and select the option: “When I sign in or close all apps on a screen, go to the desktop instead of Start.” How’s that for a description?</p>
<h4>Simplify Your Login</h4>
<p>Good for you; you have a strong password for your Microsoft Live account and you aren’t afraid to use it. If you’re the only one who ever has access to your desktop or laptop, however, maybe the act of typing in that 30-character passphrase is more trouble than it’s worth. Let’s simplify.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/windows8_screen_2_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/windows8_screen_2_small.jpg" alt="While Microsoft’s picture passwords make more sense for tablet users, you can still have a bit of (secure) fun working your mouse-drawing skills." width="620" height="346" /></a></p>
<p>Switch over to Windows 8.1’s Modern UI, hover your mouse in the lower-right corner to reveal the Charms Bar, and click the Settings button. Click Change PC Settings on the bottom-right corner, click Accounts, and then click Sign-in Options. Set up a PIN, and you’ll have a much easier time logging into your home system without compromising the integrity of your long Live password. Set up a picture password, and you’ll get to have a bit of fun using taps, circle-gestures, and lines to serve as your system’s new authentication method.</p>
<h4>Set Your Defaults</h4>
<p>One of the first places we like to stop within Windows 8.1—after we’ve installed some of our favorite third-party apps such as Media Player Classic (or VLC) for our videos and Chrome for our webpages—is the operating system’s list of default programs. That doesn’t sound very sexy, we realize, but it’s a key part of Windows 8.1 that allows you to exert an iron fist over how your operating system treats your files.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/windows8_screen_3_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/windows8_screen_3_small.jpg" alt="We often find ourselves checking the Default Programs window from time to time, just in case something else has taken over our favorite app’s file types." width="620" height="351" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>We often find ourselves checking the Default Programs window from time to time, just in case something else has taken over our favorite app’s file types.</strong></p>
<p>Fire up the Modern UI, type in default, and select the Default Programs option that appears within the sidebar search results. Click “Set your default programs,” and then find an app in the left-hand portion of the window that appears that you want to be, well, the default app for all file types that it can open. Highlight it, click the “Set this program as default” option, and you’ll never have to wonder why Windows Media Player is trying to load your jams instead of VLC.</p>
<h4>Personalize Your Taskbar for Multiple Displays</h4>
<p>Running two monitors at once is an awesome feeling. Such power. Getting your taskbar to play friendly with both monitors is the Mario Super Star of a dual-display setup in Windows 8.1, and here’s how you do it: Hit up Windows 8.1’s desktop mode and right-click the taskbar, then select Properties, which will bring up the new “Taskbar and Navigation properties” window. On the very first tab that appears (Taskbar), you’ll see a few options toward the very bottom.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/windows8_screen_4_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/windows8_screen_4_small.jpg" alt="We were just as confused as you when we couldn’t find our file libraries in Windows 8.1." width="620" height="405" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>We were just as confused as you when we couldn’t find our file libraries in Windows 8.1.</strong></p>
<p>Uncheck the “Show taskbar on all displays” to confine your taskbar to one display. If you’d rather be a bit more surgical about your taskbar, you can always select on which taskbar you’d prefer your running apps’ buttons be located, depending on what screen they’re active on. You can also globally set whether you want an app’s multiple windows to combine into a single button, or exist as independent objects on each taskbar. (The “Taskbar buttons” setting controls your primary monitor; the “Buttons on other taskbars” controls your other monitors.)</p>
<h4>Unify Your Desktop and Start Screen Backgrounds</h4>
<p>A new tweak in Windows 8.1 finally allows us to use a single desktop background for both the Modern UI and Windows 8.1’s desktop mode. To unify these two seemingly disparate environments, right-click your taskbar on the Windows 8.1 desktop and select Properties. From there, click the Navigation tab. Select the option to “Show my desktop background on Start,” and you’ll now be able to look at the same, pretty picture regardless of whether you’re clicking around the Modern UI or “classic” Windows desktop.</p>
<h4>How to Disable Charms (sort of) and Recent-app Switching</h4>
<p>Tired of all those funky bits of Windows 8.1’s Modern UI appearing unexpectedly, like when you accidentally mouse over one of the four corners of your display? We can fix that; we have the power. Fire up the Start screen, move your mouse over to the lower-right corner, click Settings, and then click Change PC Settings at the bottom. Select “PC and devices,” and then “Corners and edges.”</p>
<p>While you can’t disable everything about the Modern UI, you can use the corresponding on/off switches to hide Windows 8.1’s upper-left Recent Apps pullout, in addition to the upper-right hotspot for the Charms Bar. You’ll still be able to (or have to) access the Charms Bar via Windows 8.1’s lower-right hotspot, but it’s a start, right?</p>
<h4>Restore Your Libraries in File Explorer</h4>
<p>Once you’ve made the jump to Windows 8.1, you might notice that a certain part of File Explorer no longer exists—namely, easy access to your good-ol’ Windows libraries, those helpful Documents, Music, Video, and Pictures links that gave you a quick and easy way to check out all of your writing and media.</p>
<p>Well, the libraries may be gone, but they’re not gone for good. To bring them back into File Explorer, you just need to fire it up and click the View tab. From there, click the Navigation Pane button toward the upper-left of the window, and then select “Show libraries.” This little buried setting might be tricky to find on your own, but it’s worth the five-second trip.</p>
<h4>Tile Management</h4>
<p><strong>Making the most of Modern UI</strong></p>
<p>We’re not 100 percent sold on the jarring changes that Microsoft has constructed between its tried-and-true Windows desktop and its newfangled touchscreen-themed experience. However, we have become a bit more accustomed to tiles since Windows 8’s launch last October, and Windows 8.1 does offer some important improvements to make the Modern UI a bit more palatable—for those not already using third-party programs to write it off for good.</p>
<h4>A Brand-New Start Screen</h4>
<p>One of the most headache-inducing elements of Windows 8’s Start screen was that Microsoft gave its users absolutely no way to contain the flood of shortcuts—now tiles—that would invariably litter the area after the installation of just a few applications.</p>
<p>Windows 8.1 reverses this treatment. Now, your Start screen is as bare as bare can be; you have to manually select apps that you want to see when you jump into the Modern UI. Tiles won’t just appear by default on your Start screen whenever you install an application—yes, even a Windows Store app.</p>
<p>So, how do you get your favorite apps onto your Start screen? Pull up the Start screen and jiggle your mouse until an arrow icon appears in the lower-left corner. Click that to access the All Apps screen, and then right-click any of your tiles and select Pin to Start from the bar of options that appears at the bottom of the screen.</p>
<h4>Control Thy Tiles</h4>
<p>It’s a lot easier to go about modifying your tiles than it ever was on plain-ol’ Windows 8. Here’s what we mean: Pull up the Start screen and right-click a tile. Heck, right-click a few tiles—multiple-tile attribute editing has been beefed up in this new iteration of Microsoft’s OS.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/windows8_screen_8_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/windows8_screen_8_small.jpg" alt="We were just as confused as you when we couldn’t find our file libraries in Windows 8.1." width="620" height="588" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Goodbye, single-app-at-a-time uninstallations. Why Microsoft didn’t slap this into Windows 8 by default, we’ll never know.</strong></p>
<p>Once you’ve done so, you’ll see an option at the bottom of your screen for resizing tiles. Click that, and you’ll be given one of four sizes to choose from, ranging from Small (1/4 a standard tile size) to Large (four tiles’ worth of space). Selecting Medium gives you the default Windows 8.1 tile dimension, whereas Wide allows you take up two tiles’ worth of space by one tile’s height. While you’re there, you can also use the “Turn Live Tile Off” option to do just that—transforming your Windows 8.1 tiles into static representations of shortcuts rather than little boxes that are otherwise updated with news based on whatever the tile happens to be (assuming the tile supports the feature).</p>
<p>You can also more easily remove apps (as in, Windows Apps, not applications) from your system—uninstalling multiple apps at once—by right-clicking each one you want gone on the Start screen and selecting the Uninstall option. Once you do so, you’ll be asked to pick whether you want to simply nuke them from the system you’re currently using, or whether you want to remove the apps from all the systems whose settings have been synchronized to your Microsoft Live account. To note: This only really works well with apps, as mentioned; trying to uninstall apps and applications simultaneously gives preference to the former over the latter.</p>
<p>And, of course, moving and grouping tiles is easier in Windows 8.1, as well. Select your tiles and drag them to a new, empty column (you’ll know you’ve nailed it once Windows displays a giant, translucent gray bar), and then type in a name for your new chunk of shortcuts in the Name Group field. It’s as easy as that!</p>
<h4>Master the New ‘View’</h4>
<p>This might win over you Modern UI haters: Windows 8.1 brings some new improvements to its Snap treatment of Modern apps. Depending on the size and/or number of monitors you’re rocking, you can have up to eight different Windows apps running and visible at once.</p>
<p>Ready? Fire up a Windows app within the Modern UI, move your mouse to the top of the screen until your cursor changes into a hand, and then click and drag the entire app toward the far left or far right of your monitor. You’ll now see some empty gray space on the other side. Left-click anywhere within that to launch a new app, side-by-side, in the empty space.</p>
<p>Now that you have your screen split into two, if you want to go for the big three (and your screen allows it), launch an app from the Start screen on the monitor that your two split apps are running on. When you do, the app itself will appear to float in the center of your screen for a bit. Click it, hold down your mouse button, and keep it hovering over the center divider. <br />Voilà—your Modern UI will magically make room for more.</p>
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<h4>SkyDrive Mastery</h4>
<p><strong>More robust options make Win8.1’s cloud storage a compelling option</strong></p>
<p>Microsoft seems a little more ready to tackle the cloud storage world with its SkyDrive service, now that the 7GB of free cloud storage comes more baked into Windows 8.1 than it did with Windows 8.</p>
<p>And this is more than Microsoft just dropping a shortcut to SkyDrive within File Explorer and calling it a day. A number of nifty features work behind the scenes to ensure you aren’t sucking down massive amounts of data that you might not necessarily need (or worse, filling up a limited hard drive with a ton of unnecessary SkyDrive content). Your SkyDrive folder will be accessible and searchable just like any other folder on your physical hard drive. However, only when you go to access a file will Microsoft pull it down from the cloud.</p>
<p>And yes, you can still manually select to synchronize as many files and folders as you want if you’re more into the Dropbox “sync everything” method. That said, onto the tips!</p>
<h4>View/Add SkyDrive Storage</h4>
<p>If you’re concerned about how much space you might be eating up of your 7GB of free SkyDrive storage—or want to add more—Microsoft’s made it easy for you to check and/or buy. Fire up the Start screen, pull open the Charms Bar, and click Settings. Click Change PC Settings, and then select the SkyDrive option. The very first screen you then see will tell you how much storage you’re using, in total, and give you the option to purchase more if you’re so inclined.</p>
<h4>Saving Your Stuff</h4>
<p>A nifty new feature in Windows 8.1 is the ability to have supported apps prompt you with the option to save your files to the cloud instead of your local hard drive. The best and easiest example of this is Microsoft Word. Enable the option, and you’ll always first be given the chance to stick your files in your SkyDrive documents folder, a real time-saver if you’re a SkyDrive aficionado. To turn on this option, just flick the little switch below the SkyDrive storage information that we previously mentioned. You can’t miss it, as it’s labeled “Save documents to SkyDrive by default.”</p>
<h4>Automatically Upload to SkyDrive</h4>
<p>If you’re the kind of person who wants to make sure that everything you’re doing on your smartphone or camera, for example, is automatically saved to the cloud, Windows 8.1 makes it easy. Under the Camera Roll menu within the aforementioned SkyDrive settings screen, you’ll find options that allow to you manage the size at which your pictures are automatically stored in the cloud. Additionally, you’ll see the ever-important switch that will allow your system to automatically send videos up to SkyDrive as well.</p>
<h4>Sync Your Settings</h4>
<p>One of the fancier features of SkyDrive is its ability to synchronize a bevy of your personal settings for Windows 8.1; log into a fresh Windows 8.1 machine with your account, and it’ll look just like what you’re used to using.</p>
<p>You can, of course, flip this option on and off within the Sync Settings menu on the SkyDrive settings screen. More importantly, you can choose what you want SkyDrive to sync: your tiles? Your desktop theme? Your app settings? Passwords? The choice is yours.</p>
<h3>Make Search Work for You</h3>
<p>Turn off Bing As you’ve no doubt noticed, Microsoft’s made a few changes to Windows 8.1’s search functionality. Start typing on the Start screen and you’ll find that your system automatically starts searching through, well, everything: Windows settings, your files, and—guess who?—Bing!</p>
<p>If you’re not keen on marrying your offline searching with an ever-present web search, here’s how to ditch it. Fire up the Charms Bar, click Settings, click Change PC Settings, and select “Search and apps.” From there, ditching Bing is as easy as flicking off the switch for “Get search suggestions and web results from Bing.”</p>
<p>Hide Your Files Perhaps there are some things you don’t want to automatically populate the default “Everything” search within Windows 8.1. We’re not going to venture to guess what those files actually are—we’re just going to tell you how to make them invisible to Windows 8.1’s watchful eye.</p>
<p>If you have data on your hard drive that you don’t want Windows 8.1’s Modern UI-based search to find, simply go to the files or folders within File Explorer, right-click, select Properties, and tick the little checkbox for the Hidden property. If File Explorer isn’t set to view hidden files, your folder or file will vanish from view. To get it back, just check Hidden Items in the View pane of File Explorer. Since they won’t show up in search, you’ll need to remember just where you hid your precious collection of vintage Seka movies.</p>
http://www.maximumpc.com/windows_81_guide_2014#commentsfeaturehow to useJanuary issues 2014microsoftoperating systemOStipsUpgrade to Windows 8.1Office ApplicationsSoftwareFeaturesThu, 29 May 2014 21:26:17 +0000Maximum PC staff and David Murphy27510 at http://www.maximumpc.comAdobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 Reviewhttp://www.maximumpc.com/adobe_photoshop_lightroom_5_review_2014
<!--paging_filter--><h3>Latest update polishes an already valuable tool</h3>
<p>Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 is yet another evolution in the life of this impressive and increasingly capable raw photo processing and digital asset management (DAM) application. If you’re not familiar with Lightroom and you’re a photographer, you’ve either been living under a rock or you just got your very first camera kit. Regardless, here’s a quick refresher. Lightroom combines two major modules, along with five additional peripheral modules, all designed to simplify the process of managing and processing the large intake of photographs people take today.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/advanced_healing_brush_small_1.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/advanced_healing_brush_small_0.jpg" alt="Latest update polishes an already valuable tool" title="Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5" width="620" height="374" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>The Advanced Healing Brush in Lightroom 5 brings a far more useful and, well, advanced healing tool.</strong></p>
<p>Lightroom is not a replacement for Photoshop, but rather a companion. In fact, Lightroom is so robust, we find that Photoshop is relegated to very specific tasks and 95 percent of our work can be done in Lightroom alone. Photoshop only becomes necessary for things like stitching panoramas, doing highly customized image sharpening, or very sophisticated image patching or object removal.</p>
<p>Don’t confuse Lightroom with Adobe Bridge (the company’s media asset manager), either. Superficially, there is some overlap in their functionality, but don’t fall into the trap of thinking that Bridge is “good enough.” We’ve encountered photographers who initially believed that learning Lightroom would be a waste of time because “Bridge does everything Lightroom does.” In every case, these same photographers end up regretting that they didn’t transition to Lightroom sooner.</p>
<p>So, what’s new over version 4? For us, the big changes are the Smart Preview system, the enhanced Spot Removal Tool, and the Radial Filter Tool. If you’re a landscape or travel photographer who embeds GPS data in your images, you’ll love the new Map module, which shows your images overlaid on a map. If you often find yourself tweaking perspective in the lens corrections module, you might love the new Upright feature, which automates major perspective corrections. If you do video side-by-side with your still photography, you can now mix video and stills into Lightroom-generated slideshows. All of these improvements plus much more mean there’s something for everyone.</p>
<p>The Smart Preview system enables full raw edit-ability in a very lightweight package. We find ourselves wanting to take our work on the road, but taking the tens or even hundreds of gigabytes associated with a large shoot can be daunting. Now with Lightroom 5, we can go to our master collection that’s typically on our big desktop box, select the images we want to take on the road, then select File &gt; Export As Catalogue. In the next screen, uncheck “export negative files,” and check “build / include smart previews.” Under the hood what happens next is that Lightroom exports a new catalog with lightweight, down-sampled files based on Adobe’s Lossy DNG tech. These files are tiny compared to your master raw files, but still maintain full raw edit-ability. If you outsource your raw processing to someone else, now you can realistically deliver jobs via Dropbox rather than shipping a hard drive. When you’re finished working on the road, simply re-import the export catalog to your master catalog, and Lightroom seamlessly integrates all your changes into the master raw file.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/radial-gradient-1_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/radial-gradient-1_small.jpg" alt="Fortunately, the new Radial Filter gives you the ability to quickly apply radial gradients as well as other adjustments." title="Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5" width="620" height="375" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Fortunately, the new Radial Filter gives you the ability to quickly apply radial gradients as well as other adjustments.</strong></p>
<p>The enhanced Spot Removal Tool is improved in three ways. First, you have control over edge feathering. Second, you can control the opacity of the removed spot, meaning it’s now capable of doing more natural skin and blemish removal. Third (and this is the big one), you can now paint non-circular removal areas. In LR4, all you could do was click to create a circular spot removal. Now on LR5, if you click and drag you begin painting a mask of any size and shape you desire.</p>
<p>The new Radial Filter Tool is marketed by Adobe as a vignette tool with more control, which is true, but we feel this under-sells how useful it is. All the controls you associate with the Graduated Filter tool can now be applied in a radial fashion, as well. This means new ways to quickly correct entire areas surrounding your subject.</p>
<p>Unlike most of Adobe’s other apps, Lightroom 5 continues to offer a stand-alone license, which means you “own” it once you’ve bought it rather than paying every month in perpetuity for it. Adobe does offer a “cloud” version, which is bundled with Photoshop Creative Cloud for $40 a month. By itself, Lightroom 5 is $140 new or $80 as an upgrade.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/smart-previews_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/smart-previews_small.jpg" alt="The Smart Preview mode gives you an easy way to edit photos on the road with your laptop and then merge the files back with your powerful desktop once back home." title="Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5" width="620" height="376" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>The Smart Preview mode gives you an easy way to edit photos on the road with your laptop and then merge the files back with your powerful desktop once back home.</strong></p>
<p>All of this doesn’t mean Lightroom is perfect. We’ve previously criticized the underlying code and task scheduling for being sluggish, not taking full advantage of the computing hardware, and not scaling well on faster hardware. Unfortunately, Lightroom 5 doesn’t offer any change here, but it should. Performance isn’t horrible but we’d love to see a lightning-fast preview mode that takes advantage of a raw file’s built-in preview data, à la Camera Bits’s PhotoMechanic, to make culling large volumes of images faster.</p>
<p>Ultimately, though, just because a tool is the best choice doesn’t mean it’s flawless. If you’re a hobbyist or professional photographer, Lightroom deserves to be your tool of choice. In spite of its weaknesses, Lightroom 5 offers enough new utility to be a worthy upgrade or outright purchase for anyone who needs help dealing with large amounts of images.</p>
<p><strong>$150 new ($80 upgrade)</strong>, <a href="http://www.adobe.com/">www.adobe.com</a></p>
http://www.maximumpc.com/adobe_photoshop_lightroom_5_review_2014#commentsadobe light room 5Kaya February 2014photo editingphotoshopReviewSoftwareOffice ApplicationsSoftwareReviewsThu, 29 May 2014 18:38:23 +0000Gavin Farrington27880 at http://www.maximumpc.comDark Souls 2 Reviewhttp://www.maximumpc.com/dark_souls_2_review_2014
<!--paging_filter--><h3><img src="/files/u166440/dark_souls_2_009.jpg" alt="Dark Souls 2 009" title="Dark Souls 2 009" width="200" height="125" style="float: right;" />Fun, yet frustrating</h3>
<p>I’m fighting against a skeleton wielding a large greatsword. I roll out of its way to dodge its first attack and immediately parry a second one with my shield. With my enemy off balance, I quickly get in a couple of slashes with my broadsword and get his health down significantly. At this point, I’m feeling confident that the fight is almost over as I roll out of the way of the skeleton’s next attack. But, to my horror, I anticlimactically&nbsp;fall off a cliff and die which forces me to lose all the souls I've collected.</p>
<p><em>Mouse flies in one direction, the keyboard flies in the other, and somehow there is a fist-sized hole in the monitor.</em></p>
<p>It seems to us that frustration is the currency that From Software likes to deal in when it comes to the Dark Souls franchise and Dark Souls 2 is no exception. There were many times we became frustrated as we played the game. But perhaps not for the reasons many who have played, or will play, the game will expect. But we’ll address that soon enough.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="/files/u166440/dark_souls_2_005.jpg" alt="Praise the Sun!" title="Dark Souls 2 005" width="620" height="388" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Praise the Sun! The graphics are good!</strong></p>
<p>There are various reasons to like Dark Souls 2, with graphics being one of them. The game’s visuals are pleasing to the eyes with great lighting and shadow effects. The scenery looked good and is certainly a cut or two above its console counterpart. PC gamers will certainly appreciate the fact that they can go into the video settings and adjust resolution, texture, water surface, effects, and shadow quality, among other options. However, we are disappointed by the game’s limited character creation. To be fair, there are a lot of awesome-looking armor sets that will cover your character up anyhow.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Coupled with the graphics is the tone of the game which is depressing, foreboding, and scary. We never knew what was going to happen whenever we stepped through a door or walked around a corner. As if fighting all the undead, monsters, and bosses in the game aren't hard enough, there are traps and ambushes in Dark Souls 2 that kept us on our toes the entire time.&nbsp;</p>
<p>In addition, there are a plethora of secrets and hidden areas to be found that are not immediately noticeable. This made the journey through the land an enjoyable one since we liked to explore and discover things that would go unnoticed to the casual eye. It also added to the mystique and terror we felt as we pondered the risks and rewards of straying off the beaten path in hopes of finding useful items and souls.</p>
<p>Those souls you collect are the currency to the game. Not only are souls needed to purchase gear and level up, but it also helped our undead Knight maintain his humanity. As an undead character, there is a curse that slowly erases our hero's memories unless they can collect these souls. So we are tasked to collect many souls throughout the game. While the reasons for the soul collecting eventually become unraveled through the game, it ends up being an almost forgettable and uninteresting story.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="/files/u166440/dark_souls_2_007.jpg" alt="Dark Souls 2 007" title="Dark Souls 2 007" width="620" height="388" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?</strong></p>
<p>Yet, while the game looks good, has a great atmosphere, and kept us occupied and challenged the entire time, there are many frustrating components to the game. Reasons beyond us dying over and over again, which is an experience that, for those who play challenging roguelike games, will be familiar with.&nbsp;</p>
<p>One aspect we were really annoyed with were the button prompts. All button prompts in the game are for a controller setup rather than for mouse and keyboard combo. For example, we often found ourselves having to open up the menu to see what something like the "A" button was (shift + left click, in case you were wondering). Considering we're confident many keyboard and mouse users will also be bewildered by this, it's a major oversight.&nbsp;</p>
<p>As for the M/KB layout, reconfiguring will definitely be required for a better gameplay experience. That is, unless you were born with three hands because the button layout ranges from the WASD keys, to the “O” button if you want to lock on to an enemy during combat, to the arrow keys for scrolling through equipped items. We were also left scratching our heads at the fact that the developer hadn’t even utilized the number keys above the QWERTY keys. If that isn't enough, we couldn’t even bind any actions to the fourth and fifth buttons on our mouse.</p>
<p>This means that Dark Souls 2 is only partially optimized for the keyboard and mouse. While the game may work better with a controller, there is no reason to alienate PC enthusiasts in this fashion. There is simply no excuse, especially not when other third-person action games such as The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (which can be played first-person as well), and Clan of Champions can do a good job of utilizing the versatility of the mouse and keyboard.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Then there is the issue we had with the game’s combat, a key selling point for the franchise and its acclaimed difficulty. For a game that requires perfect timing to parry an enemy’s attack, or land a blow of our own, we noticed about a half-second delay between mouse clicks and attack executions. While this might be attributable to the fact that the light (one click) and strong (two clicks) attacks are bound to the same key, it once again shows the developer’s error for not properly utilizing the control scheme. Especially since a special attack like Bash requires the player to press “W” and the light attack button (left mouse button) at the same time.&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="/files/u166440/dark_souls_2_006.jpg" alt="Dark Souls 2 006" title="Dark Souls 2 006" width="620" height="388" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Dashingly handsome undead Knight reporting for duty!</strong></p>
<p>Another reason for our frustration is a glitch we encountered in our very first attempt at playing the game. At the time we thought nothing of this glitch, or even considered it such. But eventually we discovered that we could only equip the starting weapon in our left hand and that, whenever we would try to do the same with the right, nothing would register and we would fight with our bare hands. The weapon would be equipped but, as far as the game was concerned, there was nothing there. So when we finally found a shield several hours later, we discovered that we could equip the shield in our left, but couldn’t equip a weapon in our right.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Suffice it to say, we had to start the game all over.</p>
<p>While at first this seemed to be a glitch that happened at the start of a new game, we discovered that this is not the case. During another playthrough, we recreated the same glitch simply by equipping a shield in our right hand and trying to equip a weapon in the left. Then, when we switched both items, the glitch returned. Which meant we had to start all over again if we wanted to play as a sword-and-shield-wielding Knight.&nbsp;</p>
<p>(We’ve also heard that quite a few players have experienced crashes with the game. However, we never experienced a single crash during our playthrough.)</p>
<p>Finally, we come to Dark Souls 2’s limited combat system. At first, we disliked it. It felt contrived to create an unnecessarily difficult experience. We also didn’t like&nbsp;the fact that you need to carry two different types of swords: one for open environments and one for enclosed spaces. Seems a bit contrived to us, but maybe we’re just being nitpicky.</p>
<p>However, we will admit that as we continued to play through the game, we became attuned to the way combat works. Maybe this is a case of Stockholm Syndrome because we did get to a point where we did appreciate Dark Souls 2's combat. But, it is nowhere near the best we have ever experienced. Not when we compare it to the aforementioned combat systems of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings and Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy. But it is hardly the worst combat experience we've had.&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="/files/u166440/dark_souls_2_002.jpg" alt="Dark Souls 2 002" title="Dark Souls 2 002" width="620" height="388" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>We got so frustrated by the combat that we smashed this guy into the wall!</strong></p>
<p>Those who enjoy the combat system, however, will certainly like Dark Souls 2 for both its singleplayer and multiplayer campaigns. We were able to work together with other players to fight the game’s bosses and even invaded someone elses' game and fought them.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Overall, Dark Souls 2 is a fine game. But it will be frustrating for many PC gamers who use a mouse and keyboard to play (unless modders or the developer itself improves it). It will also be frustrating for those who might not have the patience to learn the ins and outs of the game. But those that enjoy it will find that they will be spending a lot of time in the land of Drangleic.&nbsp;</p>
<div><strong>$60</strong>, <a title="From Software website" href="http://www.fromsoftware.jp/en/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #ff0000;">http://www.fromsoftware.jp/en/</span></a>; <strong>ESRB: Teen</strong></div>
http://www.maximumpc.com/dark_souls_2_review_2014#commentsDark Souls 2 reviewfrom softwaremaximum pcSoftwareGamesReviewsWed, 30 Apr 2014 23:00:14 +0000Sean D Knight27718 at http://www.maximumpc.comAssassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag Reviewhttp://www.maximumpc.com/assassin%E2%80%99s_creed_iv_black_flag_review2014
<!--paging_filter--><h3>How much rum can one possibly plunder?</h3>
<p>If you’ll allow this prospective pirate to get personal for a moment, we really didn’t want to like Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. Having spent far, far too long killing this and that in the ol’ Animus throughout the five previous major titles in the six-year franchise, we’re starting to get the feeling that Assassin’s Creed is borrowing a page from the Call of Duty franchise—it refuses to just up and die.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/5_small_11.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/5_small_10.jpg" alt="It wouldn’t be an Assassin’s Creed game without the requisite “talk to the guy you’re about to kill” cutscenes." title="Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag" width="620" height="349" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>It wouldn’t be an Assassin’s Creed game without the requisite “talk to the guy you’re about to kill” cutscenes.</strong></p>
<p>Back out from the game’s minutia, and there’s nothing wrong with Black Flag’s overall concept. You’re an assassin sort of tasked with dispatching a number of antagonists, collecting a crap-ton of hidden items, and running the equivalent of eight ultra-marathons per gaming session as you traverse the various historical landscapes while donning the stereotypical assassin “hoodie outfit.”</p>
<p>Since it’s Assassin’s Creed—and since the developers, we suspect, always want to add some sort of additional gravitas beyond one’s pincushion-prone adventures—there’s a side component of Black Flag that functions as the game’s main quest. Yes, you read that right.</p>
<p>The entire plot is an Inception-like romp into one’s ancestral consciousness, and your “real-world” persona in Black Flag is a not-so-impressive, unnamed employee at the fictitious gaming firm Abstergo Entertainment. To us, the infrequent warping between the game’s two environments is the series’ seventh-inning stretch: You have to slowly stand and sing the familiar tune, even if you don’t want to do it. You have no way out.</p>
<p>Thankfully, Black Flag balances out its real-world boredom with the series’ most refined and engaging mix of quasi-open-world gameplay to date, set in a gorgeous environment that makes us yearn for a 15-minute trip on a watery Disney ride. If nothing else, we commend developer Ubisoft Montreal for finally understanding that pirates are way cooler than the American Revolution (Blackbeard: 1; Benjamin Franklin: 0). This simple hook alone should be enough to wet the whistles of many a gamer who has felt otherwise let down by any pirate-themed game that doesn’t start with the word Monkey.</p>
<p>Our problem? It takes too long to get there. Tutorials are tutorials, but Black Flag is one of the first games in the franchise—at least, that we can remember—that had us scratching our heads a bit as to how everything works. It’s partially the fault of the game’s early missions, which do a decent, but not-so-perfect job of detailing everything that your character (or ship) can do. Case in point: We had to look up how to fire our ship’s heavy shot. One of the most powerful weapons in one’s watery arsenal… and we had to Google it.</p>
<p>Wrapped within that is the odd combination of the game’s painfully slow progression and quasi-open-world motif. We dislike how Black Flag presents a giant, explorable world, but locks much of it behind strange, shimmering, digital curtains until you progress to certain points in the game’s main quest. The same holds true for all of your weapons and ship upgrades; you don’t even get the tried-and-true staple of the series, the trusty hidden blade, until after the game dumps you into the wide-open world for a bit of time.</p>
<p>We get it; Ubisoft really wants you to play the Animus-based plot. Here’s the problem with that: It’s not that interesting. The storyline, as we’ve noted, is a bit out there, and the primary missions don’t offer up many challenges or much diversity. You’re encouraged to be stealthy merely as a part of an overall achievement unlock. Otherwise, there’s no real penalty for crossing your Jack Sparrow with your Rambo within missions, which are, themselves, getting fairly standard within the overall Assassin’s Creed universe. We’d be perfectly OK to never have to spend minutes eavesdropping on someone ever again.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="/files/u152332/6_small_16.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/6_small_15.jpg" alt="Half the fun of Black Flag comes from exploring your way to new (and super-pretty) locations." title="Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag" width="620" height="821" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Half the fun of Black Flag comes from exploring your way to new (and super-pretty) locations.</strong></p>
<p>Curiously enough, there’s no actual progression for your character skills—you start off as a fairly formidable assassin with the ability to kill just about anyone quite quickly. We might have preferred an RPG-like upgrade system whereby one’s talents, purchasable or otherwise, were a bit more customizable or upgradable. It could also serve as an excellent tutorial for the myriad moves and techniques one’s assassin can do. Any of the recent Batman games gives a good example of what we’re referring to. Black Flag borrows a simplified crafting/upgrading system from Far Cry 3, but it’s not really enough.</p>
<p>Black Flag, like previous titles in the series, focuses much on your ability to free run, climb, dodge, and stab your way through levels. It’s still a bit clunky to do so—akin to driving a large truck in an obstacle course instead of a more dexterous motorcycle. We can forgive that, however, because Ubisoft has finally managed to create open-world aspects that are fun regardless of how repetitive they might feel.</p>
<p>Yes, the ship combat does become a bit rote after a while, but the game delivers a thrilling joy after you successfully survive a close battle against an enemy convoy by the skin of your teeth. We thought we’d get bored shooting and boarding ship after ship after ship; to our surprise, we didn’t. We almost wish the game went one step further and gave you some additional ships to play around with—a convoy of your own that you could command in some kind of quasi-real-time-strategy-like fashion. As it stands, there’s great fun in blasting and boarding. We smiled each and every time we rope-swung out to an enemy ship to deliver stabby surprises.</p>
<p>Sailing around the map bombarding ports, evading waterspouts (yes, waterspouts), and chasing down giant treasure fleets that your online friends can identify on your map for you—to name a few activities—is a thrill. You can even cycle through songs for your crew to sing while you’re sailing (and unlock others by finding them within the game) and, should you find yourself running low on patience, make use of the many fast travel locations that Ubisoft litters throughout the game’s landscape. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Walker, this is not.</p>
<p>We’re running low on space to cover all the side activities you can undertake in Black Flag, and it behooves us to touch on one of the game’s super-eye-opening features: companion apps for both Android and iOS, which deliver some of the best cross-platform interaction we’ve yet seen in a PC game. We absolutely love that we can fire up our tablets, load a free app, and have a real-time feed of our character’s progression on the world map, quick access to our mission statuses, and even a means for interacting with Black Flag’s game-within-a-game “Kenway’s Fleet” trading system.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/2_small_22.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/2_small_21.jpg" alt="Yes, the game sends watery tornados into your path. No, you do not want to be in their path." title="Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag" width="620" height="349" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Yes, the game sends watery tornados into your path. No, you do not want to be in their path.</strong></p>
<p>That said, we sure wish we had some easy means of pulling our existing online friends into Uplay—either those from Steam, Facebook, or any of the other big social or gaming networks. It would certainly help the title’s multiplayer efforts, which feel pretty similar, if not identical to, that which we’ve already seen in the series. It could also boost the single-player game a bit, given the curious (but engaging) social tie-ins that Ubisoft has built right into the core campaign. We love this blend of online and “offline” gameplay; give us more!</p>
<p>What we don’t want more of, however, is bloat; Black Flag’s title screen feels a bit clunky with its many advertisements and links to external websites. Tone those parts down a bit, Ubisoft, please.</p>
<p>As for the game, definitely play Black Flag, but we’d argue that it’s more fun as a pirate romp than a full-fledged simulator of silent deaths. Far Cry 3 handled some of these stealthy, lone-gunman mechanics more interestingly; Assassin’s Creed borrows a little bit from the best, but none can currently rival the fun it brings to the high seas.</p>
<p><strong>$60,</strong> <a href="http://assassinscreed.ubi.com/en-GB/home/index.aspx">assassinscreed.ubi.com</a><strong>, ESRB: M</strong></p>
http://www.maximumpc.com/assassin%E2%80%99s_creed_iv_black_flag_review2014#commentsAssassin’s Creed IV black flag reviewfebruary 2014gamesSoftwareSoftwareGamesReviewsFri, 25 Apr 2014 14:43:00 +0000David Murphy27691 at http://www.maximumpc.comBatman: Arkham Origins Reviewhttp://www.maximumpc.com/batman_arkham_origins_review_2014
<!--paging_filter--><h3>Rocksteady proves a hard act to follow</h3>
<p>In 2009, expectations for Batman: Arkham Asylum were not high, since movie tie-in games have a pretty sketchy track record. Developer Rocksteady was also relatively unknown back then, and Christopher Nolan’s Batman films had become landmark cinema, making them a hard act to follow even for celebrated game designers. But this determined gang delivered a faithful and entertaining romp (having the talented voice actors from the cartoons take on their roles didn’t hurt, either). Fast-forward to 2013, and an unrelated, newly formed studio is at the helm—and Batman and Joker have new voices. We also have potentially tacked-on multiplayer now. It sounds like cause for concern once again, and this time the worries are more justifiable, though not in the ways you might expect.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/batmanorigins_small_0.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/batmanorigins_small.jpg" alt="There’s a $50 million bounty on Batman’s head, which apparently doesn’t need to remain attached to his body." title="Batman: Arkham Origins" width="620" height="349" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>There’s a $50 million bounty on Batman’s head, which apparently doesn’t need to remain attached to his body.</strong></p>
<p>The gameplay is largely unchanged. Batman still glides and grappling-hooks his way over the gritty, crime-infested streets of Gotham, overhearing conversations and finding collectibles. You still beat the snot out of hundreds of thugs using the same combo system. You get a smaller window to respond to an attack, so your combo chains are broken more often, which makes the truly interesting maneuvers less accessible. The more time you spend evading, the longer the fight takes. Toward the end of the main storyline, you will be fighting literally dozens of dudes at once, all with differing abilities and tactics. It can be downright grueling sometimes.</p>
<p>Speaking of the story, it’s also not as tight. Though you have a $50 million bounty on your head, and eight or so assassins are after it, you largely have the city to yourself, unless you decide to confront them. Four of them are optional, or you can deal with them after the main plot has concluded. On the other hand, defeating the assassins unlocks certain combat abilities. But other than that, they don’t actually try to hunt you down or lure you in. You don’t have to worry about innocents getting caught in the crossfire, because ordinary citizens are nonexistent. They’ve apparently barricaded themselves in after hearing about this $50M scavenger hunt, and there’s also something about martial law, but you don’t see any police or military personnel patrolling the streets.</p>
<p>One can’t help but wonder what might have been if developer Warner Brothers Montreal had not divided its efforts between single-player and multiplayer. The latter is a novel experience: Two teams of thugs must fight off Batman and Robin while fighting each other for territory. But the two hero characters are largely vertical attackers, so someone playing a gang member is getting attacked from all angles, making death frequent and frustrating.</p>
<p>Aside from multiplayer, the overall sense of déjà vu throughout Origins is so regular that the game feels more like a game-length flashback set within the previous installment, rather than a distinct experience. Granted, Origins is modeled after the very satisfying experience of the previous game, Arkham City, so it never strays into the outright regrettable. But it never fully emerges from that long shadow, either.</p>
<p><strong>$50, </strong><a href="http://www.batmanarkhamorigins.com/">www.batmanarkhamorigins.com</a><strong>, ESRB: T</strong></p>
http://www.maximumpc.com/batman_arkham_origins_review_2014#commentsBatmanJanuary issues 2014maximum pcReviewSoftwareGamesReviewsMon, 14 Apr 2014 15:44:10 +0000Tom McNamara27632 at http://www.maximumpc.comCall of Duty: Ghostshttp://www.maximumpc.com/call_duty_ghosts_review_2014
<!--paging_filter--><h3>Immaterial, indeed</h3>
<p>Talk about a disappointing ghost.</p>
<p>We don’t mean the holes-cut-in-a-sheet, Charlie Brown–style Halloween-costume-gone-awry. That actually sounds pretty fun. We’re talking about the weird, ski-mask-wearing group of quote-unquote stealth operatives who personify Infinity Ward’s newest title in the Call of Duty franchise—you know, those guys wearing the spooky logo over their faces who look as if the developers read a bit too much Punisher during crunch time.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/4_small_0.png"><img src="/files/u152332/4_small.png" alt="No, this isn’t a trailer for Gravity. Yes, you can apparently go Rambo on a person (or an installation) in space." title="Call of Duty: Ghosts" width="620" height="349" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>No, this isn’t a trailer for Gravity. Yes, you can apparently go Rambo on a person (or an installation) in space.</strong></p>
<p>We’ll give Infinity Ward credit: It’s trying just about everything it can to spice up Call of Duty: Ghosts, the first double-digit entry in the 10-year franchise. But we can’t help but wonder if it wouldn’t have been a wiser decision for the group to kill the series while it was on top.</p>
<p>Why’s that? We got bored.</p>
<p>First, an explanation. When reviewing games at Maximum PC, we do our best to stick with a title all the way through to the bitter end. Rare is the game where we find ourselves ready to “verdictize” after a shorter timeframe, but Call of Duty: Ghosts is just that special, skull-emblazoned snowflake. Right around mission seven of the game’s 18-mission single-player campaign, we were ready to call it quits.</p>
<p>It’s not that the campaign is poorly constructed, per se; it’s very Call of Duty, for better or worse. You, Logan, warp through time and space (literally, though you play as someone else during your little Gravity-like trip through the heavens) in your somewhat-clandestine attempts to stop a superpower called the Federation (really?) from winning a land war against the good ol’ US of A. You hang with your brother and his dog a lot; you meet up with some of the “ghosts” you’ve oh-so-heard about; and you quickly acquire, lose, and re-acquire the Federation’s main bad guy.</p>
<p>It’s not that the story isn’t exciting on its face; it’s the way it’s delivered—and the gameplay. We find it quite disjointing the way Infinity Ward sometimes treats the plot. For example, you start out at home, 10 years prior to the main storyline, trying to avoid the sweet kiss of death while your town gets blasted by the space-based weapons platform ODIN. You then warp to said platform, 15 minutes earlier, to take up the role of Random Astronaut Guy (or girl) who is attempting to stop the evil Federation from taking control.</p>
<p>The thing is, you already know how this brief spurt of weightless combat ends, which makes the entire exercise seem a bit moot. While your astronaut burns up in the atmosphere, you warp back down into the perspective of Logan once again. You escape death, flash-forward 10 years, and the story churns forward through a Butterfly Effect–like smorgasbord of times and locations. The adventure can, at times, feel a wee bit schizophrenic.</p>
<p>Infinity Ward does sprinkle in some intriguing gameplay elements—tried-and-true as they might be—to spice up Ghosts’ extremely linear action. Sometimes, you get a fun weapon to play with (we do love rockets). Other times, you’re controlling a remote sniper rifle or an A-10 Tank Killer (somewhat fun). You even get a chance to control your freakin’ dog companion, which officially wins this year’s award for “least believable in real life” element of a military-themed shooter.</p>
<p>However, these little moments feel more like the palate-cleansing cracker between a series of banal courses. They’re hardly engaging or challenging—at one point, we watched enemy fighters run out of nowhere to stand, stiff as flagpoles, in nearly the exact spots where we had just remote-shot their peers. Gripping AI there, Infinity Ward.</p>
<p>And if you think anything changes in Ghosts’ pew-pew gunfight parts, you’re mistaken. The game’s linear routing turns most gunfights into an Old Western–style “cover, pop up, and blast to pieces” kind of a fracas. Even playing on the game’s second-highest difficulty setting, Hardened, we only found ourselves dying from the occasional misstep related to running away from grenades. As far as bullets go, there was absolutely nothing that our red-dot weaponry couldn’t handle—our weapon, our patience, and, when we got bored, our dog.</p>
<p>For a game that practically screams “shooter Assassins Creed” on its cover, we feel that it lacks some of the core, stealth mechanics that one might find in a game with the word “Ghosts” right in the title. They exist a little bit, sure, but this isn’t a Far Cry 3 kind of a deal where you spend agonizing minutes plotting your way through an enemy encampment in such a fashion as to cause maximum carnage with minimal chance of alarm-raising. The “stealth” bits of Ghosts are predominantly event-based and, to us, feel overly simple, if not few and far between.</p>
<p>Infinity Ward has almost become too good at the Call of Duty formula, we’d argue; we’d also give just about anything for a little more variety in the actual construction of the individual missions themselves. The setups, situations, and scenery are all lovely and beautifully presented, but it’s hard to feel like you’re doing much more than taking part in a giant shooting gallery most of the time. The exciting add-ons Infinity Ward tosses into Ghosts—brief tank combat, anyone?—can’t carry the game on their own.</p>
<p>Of course, it’s also arguable that most people buy Call of Duty titles nowadays for the multiplayer, not the single-player campaign. This time around, Infinity Ward packs three different variations into the multiplayer version of the game—two too many.</p>
<p>The standard Call of Duty slugfest serves as the game’s multiplayer core, for better or worse. Yes, the maps are still horribly imbalanced in a “spawn and die within seconds” kind of a way, which hampers much of the strategy one might otherwise want to employ when shooting one’s peers. A plethora of different game modes opens up your creative options a bit, but they’re all very shooter-driven—ain’t no base-assaulting in Call of Duty: Ghosts, much as we’d like the multiplayer to pack in a little more creativity (the maps’ dynamic events notwithstanding).</p>
<p>New to the series are tweaks to the game’s “earned experience” in multiplayer, where you now customize your character by spending “squad points” to buy all kinds of new models, guns, perks, and other fun. Creating clans and squaring off against others is similarly simple. The game’s “operations,” or milestones you perform within multiplayer, are not—they first have to be selected in order for you to contribute to them, a fact we learned only after sinking quite a few hours into shooting others.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u152332/1_small_35.jpg"><img src="/files/u152332/1_small_34.jpg" alt="Though easy, there’s a certain joy that comes from killing simple AI soldiers in Squads mode." title="Call of Duty: Ghosts" width="620" height="349" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Though easy, there’s a certain joy that comes from killing simple AI soldiers in Squads mode.</strong></p>
<p>A new Extinction mode in Ghosts feels like a simplistic Left 4 Dead, an addition that could have just as easily been farmed out to a third-party modder (or two) and released as an after-the-fact (free) DLC. This rehashing of Call of Duty’s Zombies mode is about as intriguing as Ghosts’ new Squads mode, a means by which you—and human or AI teammates—can square off against another person’s AI-created squad. It’s an overly complicated setup that feels more like an easily exploitable multiplayer training mode than anything else. We’re confused by its necessity, especially when resources for that—or Extinction—could have been better spent beefing up the game’s primary multiplayer components.</p>
<p>Here’s the deal: If you love everything Call of Duty stands for, this review is meaningless. You’ve already bought Ghosts. If you’ve never played a single game in the franchise, then you’ll get a fine Call of Duty experience with Ghosts, though you might want to check out its predecessor, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, for a more engaging (and inexpensive) single-player campaign.</p>
<p>However, if you’re on the fence, just go ahead and stay there—buy a real dog, instead.</p>
http://www.maximumpc.com/call_duty_ghosts_review_2014#commentscall of dutyJanuary issues 2014maximum pcReviewSoftwareGamesReviewsMon, 07 Apr 2014 11:53:35 +0000David Murphy27576 at http://www.maximumpc.com